Shuttlers attend team building camp ahead of Sudirman Cup

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s preparation for the Sudirman Cup challenge started with a three-day team building at the outskirts of Klang Valley yesterday.

All the Sudirman Cup players have been competing non-stop on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) world tour and the team building camp is expected to refresh the Sudirman Cup squad.

Malaysia have named a mixture of Badminton Association of Malaysia and independent players for the campaign this year in Suzhou, China, from May 14-19.

Most of the shuttlers except for several independent players, who competed in the Asian Championships in Dubai which concluded on Sunday, are expected to join the camp today.

They are men’s doubles Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi, who finished runners-up in Dubai, and mixed doubles semi-finalists Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie while men’s singles Lee Zii Jia is also expected to join today.

Also part of the squad are men’s singles Ng Tze Yong; women’s singles Goh Jin Wei, K. Letshanaa; men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik; women’s doubles Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah and Valeree Siow-Go Pei Kee as well as mixed doubles pairs Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing, Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei, and Hoo Pang Ron-Teoh Mei Xing.

The players will return to Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) on Thursday to continue with their centralised training for the Sudirman Cup.

Malaysia are in Group C with India, Taiwan and Australia where two teams will advance to the quarter-finals.

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.