A Her-culean task but Tan’s perfect for the job

SOUTH Korean badminton legend Park Joo-bong has backed Tan Kim Her to succeed as Japan’s men’s doubles coach.The 47-year-old Kim Her, who has 20 years of experience with the national teams of Malaysia, South Korea, England and India, was officially appointed yesterday.

And Japan Badminton Association head coach Joo-bong is convinced Kim Her is perfect for the job, where the Key Performance Index (KPI) is to produce gold medallists at the Tokyo Olympics next year.

The post was left vacant when Indonesian Reony Mainaky resigned abruptly last month to join the Indonesia BA as the women’s singles coach.

“I’ve known Kim Her for a very long time, from my previous working experience with him in Malaysia (national team from 1999-2002),” said Joo-bong.

“I remember him as a very hard-working man. He was a back-up coach then and he did very well producing some good junior players.

“He went to South Korea and produced some great doubles shuttlers in Lee Yong-dae, Jung Jae-sung, Shin Baek-cheol and Ko Sung-hyun.

“My senior, who’s the head coach at that time, spoke highly of him. The players were also happy with him too,” added Joo-bong.

Kim Her is the third Malaysian to join the Japan BA after Jeremy Gan and Lee Wan Wah.

Wan Wah, 43, also began his duty as junior coach yesterday and his first assignment is at the Osaka International Challenge.

Joo-bong expects both of them to flourish like Jeremy, who is in charge of the mixed doubles.

The 40-year-old did extremely well in his first year when he guided Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino to several victories, notably at last year’s All-England.

The pair are also the current world No. 3.