PETALING JAYA: A centralised training camp involving both national and independent players for the Asian Mixed Team Championships (Feb 14-19) in Dubai will be held from Feb 6-11 at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara.
“Following discussions among myself, national singles coaching director Wong Choong Hann and ABM chief executive officer Michelle Chai, we have agreed to have the joint-training camp early this month,” said doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky
“We will be leaving for Dubai at night on the 11th. Originally, we had planned to start the camp today but Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik have been given a short break to allow them to spend some time with their families as they had been competing during Chinese New Year.
“I have informed independent coach Rosman Razak (on the change of dates) as well.’’
The independent players are Lee Zii Jia (men’s singles), Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi (men’s doubles), Goh Jin Wei (women’s singles) and Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing (mixed doubles).
They will join the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s Leong Jun Hao (men’s singles), Aaron-Wooi Yik (men’s doubles), Wong Ling Ching (women’s singles), Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, Teoh Mei Xing-Go Pei Kee (women’s doubles) and Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei (mixed doubles).
In the draw released for the group stage of the competition which also serves as the qualifier for the Sudirman Cup from May 14-21 in Suzhou, China, Malaysia are in Group B with India, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates.
The top two teams in the group will advance to the quarter-finals and Malaysia are set to battle with India for the top spot.
In the last edition in 2019, Malaysia reached the last eight before going down 0-3 to eventual runners-up Japan.
China were crowned champions after edging the Japanese 3-2.
