PETALING JAYA: The recent fine performances of the junior shuttlers has raised hopes for a positive outing in the Asian Junior Championships but national junior doubles coach Pang Cheh Chang is remaining cautious of his charges’ chances in the tournament starting on Friday in Solo, Indonesia.
Girls’ doubles pair Dania Sofea Zaidi-Low Zi Yu and mixed doubles duo Loh Ziheng-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan especially are heading into the Asian meet on a high after capturing titles in the Malaysian Junior International Challenge in Perlis last week.
Dania-Zi Yu, who bagged silver in the world junior meet last year, are Malaysia’s best bets for gold in Solo while Ziheng-Noraqilah have also enhanced their chances for at least a medal with their positive showing at home.
Malaysia’s other medal hopefuls are likely to be Dania and Datu Anif Asrah in the mixed doubles and Ziheng-Tan Zhi Yang in the boys’ doubles after both pairs finished runners-up in Perlis.
Cheh Chang though believes his charges will face a tougher challenge in the Asian meet due to the presence of the likes of China, Japan and South Korea, who did not compete in the Malaysian tourney.
“Overall, our players’ performances have been okay so far but we haven’t met teams like China, Korea, Japan, India and Taiwan,” said Cheh Chang.
“The most important part for us is preparation and team work. We have to go step by step.”
Dania-Zi Yu and their teammates will first compete in the mixed team event which will be held from July 18-22 before turning their attentions to the individual event from July 23-27.
In the mixed team competition, Malaysia have been placed in Group B along with Indonesia, Singapore, Macau and Myanmar.
Only the top two teams in the group will progress to the quarter-finals.
In last year’s edition, Malaysia won a silver through Aaron Tai-Kang Khai Xing (boys’ doubles) while Siti Zulaikha Azmi (girls’ singles), Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting (girls’ doubles) and mixed team all contributed bronze medals.
