PETALING JAYA: Former men's doubles All-England champion Koo Kien Keat has arrived in England as their guest coach for the month of March.
And the presence of Kien Keat is expected to boost the hosts' attempt to shine at the All-England from March 11-16 in Birmingham.
He will be guiding world No. 13 Ben Lane-Sean Vendy at the prestigious meet together with national doubles coach Nathan Robertson.
The 39-year-old Kien Keat won the All-England with Tan Boon Heong at the 2007 edition and since then, no Malaysian doubles players have won the title although Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik came close twice by finishing as the runners-up in 2019 and 2024.
The Badminton England shared the arrival of Kien Keat on their social media platforms on Friday, and welcomed the former great.
"Koo Kien Keat has joined our elite performance programme as a guest coach and will work closely with all our athletes over the next four weeks to help improve their individual games," they stated.
"We'd like to formally welcome the former All-England winner and we look forward to seeing him work in close collaboration with Nathan Robertson and all our athletes throughout the month of March."
The arrival of Kien Keat comes following the appointment of former women's doubles player Christina Pedersen from Denmark as performance coach, who will also provide specialist coaching expertise.
Badminton England are in the process of recruiting six new personels under their new performance programme vision, which includes senior and junior head coaches and singles and doubles senior coaches.
