IPOH: National shuttler Lee Chong Wei has welcomed Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s challenge for him to become the country’s next world champion.
Chong Wei is down to compete at the World Badminton Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, from Aug 21-27.
The 34-year-old has featured in the world meet nine times and was runner-up three times – in London (2011), Guangzhou (2013) and Jakarta (2015).
He finished third in California in 2005.
Khairy had said on Friday that the pressure is on Chong Wei to finally end his title drought in the world meet.
“It is a good thing to have pressure because if a sportsman cannot handle pressure, then it is impossible to be a top player,” Chong Wei told reporters after launching the Lee Chong Wei Academy here yesterday.
The world No. 2 also felt that “winning or losing isn’t important”.
“What’s more important is to overcome all the pressure and fight till the end,” he said.
“To do this, one must undergo enough training. And there’s still three weeks left before the world meet, so I will do my best to prepare for it.
“This time, it will be tougher as China will have four shuttlers in the competition.
“That’s why I must be mentally and physically prepared.”
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