Yap, she’s pulling her weight to get leaner and meaner

Eager for action: Yap Cheng Wen (front) and Vivian Hoo have just ended a five-week break from tournaments.

KUALA LUMPUR: Women’s doubles shuttler Yap Cheng Wen is looking leaner and meaner – all by intent.

She went on a special diet to lose weight in her bid to inculcate a killer instinct when she takes to the badminton courts with partner Vivian Hoo.

The pair have just ended a five-week break from tournaments and for Cheng Wen it seems to have worked wonders as she’s looking very much slimmer during their practice sessions.

“For the past few weeks I have been on a diet arranged by nutritionists from the National Sports Institute and the canteen has been preparing the meals for me,” said Cheng Wen.

“Basically it is less oil and salt and more chicken breasts and vegetables that are steamed.

“I’m not sure how much weight I’ve lost but I can feel myself moving faster on the court and it has helped my jumps also.”

For Vivian, she hopes that her partner’s efforts will help them produce better results in tournaments.

“I’m happy for her but we hope it will help us because sometimes when we lose weight, we can get tired very fast,” said Vivian.

After the long break, the pair will start a hectic schedule of three tournaments in a row – the Indonesian Open next week in Jakarta from July 16-21 before flying to Tokyo for the Japan Open from July 23-28 and then the Thailand Open in Bangkok from July 30-Aug 4.

The world No. 22 pair are eyeing quarter-final places in all three events.

In Jakarta, if they win their first-round tie against world No. 21 Ashwini Ponnappa-Reddy N. Sikki of India, they are likely to play South Korea’s world No. 6 Lee So-hee-Shin Seung-chan.

World No. 1 Mayu Matsutomo-Wakana Nagahara of Japan should be waiting for them, if the Malaysians can get past the first two hurdles.

With all the top pairs going out to play in as many tournaments as they can to gain points during the Olympic qualifying period, Vivian-Cheng Wen know that they will most likely draw the tough pairs from the first round onwards.

“To avoid a top-10 pair in the first round is like a bonus and from the second round, we have to expect tougher opponents. So we have to go out and create upsets,” said Vivian.

“I think the last few times we played the top 10 pairs we managed to keep the scores close but we lost out towards the tailend of the games.

“Maybe we lack consistency or confidence as we are still a young partnership compared to the top pairs who are more experienced and have played together longer.

“So we have to continue working harder to match the top pairs in the world.”