Shuttlers under scrutiny after lacklustre show at Asian Juniors

KUNSHAN (China), 18 Mei -- Pemain perseorangan wanita pertama negara, Goh Jin Wei kecewa setelah tewas kepada Marin Carolina dari Sepanyol, pada kejohanan Piala Uber di Pusat Sukan Kunshan, Rabu. Jin Wei gagal memungut mata untuk Skuad Piala Uber negara dikalahkan dengan mata 18-21, 22-20 dan 16-21. --fotoBERNAMA (2016) HAK CIPTA TERPELIHARA

PETALING JAYA: It’s back to the drawing board for Malaysia after an unsatisfactory outing at the Asian Junior Badminton Championships in Bangkok.

Malaysia could only manage a bronze through the boys’ doubles pair Ooi Zi Heng-Soh Wooi Yik who were beaten by China’s Han Chengkai-Zhou Haodong in the semi-finals on Saturday.

The biggest disappointment was the failure of world junior champion Goh Jin Wei to get past the quarter-finals in the girls’ singles.

The 16-year-old, who was touted as Malaysia’s best hopes to end a three-year title drought, crumbled under pressure against South Korea’s Kim Ga-eun in the last eight.

“Our players played to their standards but it was just not enough. They also lacked the finishing touch when it mattered most,” said Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) development manager Kwan Yoke Meng.

“This is the difference between our shuttlers and the top players from China, South Korea and Indonesia. Players from these countries can still deliver despite being under a lot of pressure.

“We still have a lot of work on our hands. We need to improve on the players’ physical strength, speed and sustaining power.

“Hopefully there will be a marked improvement when we compete in the World Junior Championships (in Bilbao, Spain, from Nov 2-13),” added Yoke Meng.

Meanwhile, China continued their dominance as they completed another clean sweep of all the five titles at stake.

With the boys’ and girls’ doubles titles already in the bag, they took the remaining three titles through Sun Feixiang (boys’ singles), Chen Yufei (girls’ singles) and He Jiting-Du Yue (mixed doubles).