New adventure: James Chua (centre) talking to back-up player Ong Zhen Yi while coach Datuk Tey Seu Bok looks on during the KL Masters last year.—AZMAN GHANI/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Former Malaysian Open champion James Chua has grabbed an opportunity to raise his profile as a coach.
The former Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) singles coach James has accepted a job with Czech Badminton as the head coach to handle all the programmes at their national training centre in Pilsen.
"This is a big stage to develop further my coaching career. It's a smaller badminton nation but my role is bigger than what I've done in Malaysia," said James, who left BAM a month ago.
He was hired as BAM women's singles coach in 2022 before he was moved to the men's singles department last year.
"It's a good and a great opportunity for me to manage the whole set up. This is the first time that I've taken up a task as a head coach.
"In BAM, I was just coaching the singles department, and more so the back-up players. In Czech, I will have to manage the whole national team, and those gearing up for the next Olympic Games (LA28).
"It's a bigger platform and surely, a bigger challenge for me but I'm looking forward to it."
He was urged by a good friend from Holland, who has been working at the centre, to apply for the vacant position when it was put up by the association on the Badminton Europe social platform.
"I gave it a try and I got it. I'm excited for this new adventure. I've been in Europe before and I know how it is. They have a few players with quality, and I'm happy to see how the sport is being developed in this country.
James will start work on Oct 1 and will be there for two years. But first he will head to Singapore for the Foo Kok Keong Cup.
