PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s junior badminton squad will need to stay resilient after missing the chance to defend their mixed team bronze at the World Junior Championships in Assam, Guwahati, India.
However, they still have the chance to ensure their campaign does not end in disappointment, with the individual events set to begin next week.
The draws for the individual events will only be made today, but Malaysia’s best medal hopes lie in the mixed doubles pairing of Loh Zi Heng and Noraqilah Maisarah, ranked sixth and seventh in the world for juniors.
Datu Anifah Isaac Asrah, currently world No. 1, remains a key prospect despite losing his original partner, Dania Sofea Zaidi. His new partner, Low Zi Yu, is no pushover, having been last year’s World Junior girls’ doubles runner-up alongside Dania.
Tan Zhi Yang and Nicole Tan are also in contention, with strong junior world rankings of 12 and 15 respectively.
Malaysia’s junior coach, Misbun Ramdan Misbun, hopes all the players can learn to adapt to the new scoring system at this tournament.
Teams now play best of three games, with 45 points in the relay format needed to win a game, making mental strength crucial for success.
For the individual events, however, they will play using the 3×15 scoring system, which has been in use for the past few months.
“What they learn is that sometimes their plans don’t work out, so what they need to do is be firm in making decisions.
“Those with strong mental resilience will endure. When it comes to strategy or tactics, for example, with nine points played, five points are already break points. They need to understand for themselves what they want to do,” said Ramdan.
Their campaign in the mixed team event ended in the quarter-finals on Thursday, going down 2-0 to 14-time champions China in a closely contested tie.
Despite falling short in the mixed team event, the squad continues to fight for the best overall ranking, having beaten the United States 2-1 yesterday.
Today, they will take on Taiwan in the playoff for fifth place.
