PETALING JAYA: The presence of Rosman Razak has given the motivation for independent women’s doubles player Vivian Hoo (pic) to battle for 2024 Olympic Games qualification with Lim Chiew Sien.
Vivian, who won the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games gold in 2018 with Chow Mei Kuan under Rosman’s guidance, has started training with him again over the last two weeks.
Rosman has taken over from Chin Eei Hui as the new coach of the independent pairs and Vivian-Chiew Sien are one of them.
Despite not being given much of a chance, Vivian-Chiew Sien have gradually improved their world ranking up to No. 15 after playing 19 tournaments last year and now have an outside chance to make it to Paris 2024.
Top national pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah look good to secure a spot and Vivian-Chiew Sien need to make it to the top eight when the qualifying period ends in April next year.
Vivian said it was a difficult task but they aimed to give it a genuine push to be in the Olympics again.
Vivian qualified for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics with Woon Khe Wei where they reached the quarter-finals.
“Last year, we played in many tournaments because our ranking was low and we wanted to make it to the top 32 so that we can qualify for the bigger (super 750 and super 1000) tournaments,” said Vivian.
“Now that we have achieved our target, we will focus on improving on our results ... we have Rosman to help us.
“I have trained under Rosman for quite some time and the transition from Eei Hui to train under him has been very smooth.
“If we want to qualify for Paris, we need to break into the top eight and there are so many good pairs.
“At least we know that there is a chance and this is what we are chasing for. We will give it our best shot.”
Currently ranked world No. 19, Vivian-Chiew Sien will be playing Canadians Catherine Choi-Josephine Wu in their opening match at the Malaysian Open.
If they clear the first hurdle, they are expected to meet China pair Zhang Shuxian-Zheng Yu or Japan’s Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota in the second round.
If Vivian-Chiew Sien are to live their Olympic dream, playing in the super 1000 is not enough but they need to start beating big names and it will be interesting see the influence of Rosman in their progress starting with the Malaysian Open.
