PETALING JAYA: The national badminton camp will shelve plans to undergo a training stint in Hong Kong before the Asian Championships from April 9-14 in Ningbo, China.
Instead the likes of men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik will continue their preparations for the tournament at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara.
The Road to Gold (RTG) Paris Olympics committee had initially approved the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) plan to send the players for the training camp next week.
National coaching director Rexy Mainaky does not think that the cancellation will affect the team’s preparation.
“We were supposed to send the players but we had to cancel as the training venue is not available,” said Rexy after training at ABM yesterday.
“This cancellation will not disrupt our preparations for the tournament as the players will continue their training programme as usual here (in ABM).”
BAM though are finalising plans to have a training camp after the Asian meet to help the players prepare for the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals from April 27-May 5 in Chengdu.
“We will try to have a camp for the players after the Asian meet,” said Rexy.
“But for now we have yet to finalise the place. We want to have this camp to prepare the players for the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals.
“We also want to assess if training abroad will have a positive effect on the players. The Olympic-bound players will be going for a training camp in Paris before the Olympics,
“So we want to have a trial before that to see how the players train in a different environment.”
The shuttlers are set to train for 10 days in the Aire Sur La Lys region in France from July 10-20 before the Olympics.
