National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky (right) and coach Rosman Razak watching Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah in action in the women’s doubles final . — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
BANGKOK: I’m ready to resign if this is what people want.
National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky is taking full responsibility after seeing the badminton team fail to deliver on the target of four golds.
He said he is ready to step aside if called to do so.
Only women’s doubles shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah delivered gold for Malaysia this time after beating Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji-Meilysa Puspitasari 21-16, 19-21, 21-17 in 86 minutes at Thammasat University in Pathum Thani on Sunday (Dec 14).
Men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik finished with silver after going down 14-21, 17-21 to Indonesia’s Sabar Gutama-Moh Reza.
In the mixed doubles, reigning world champions Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei fell 15-21, 16-21 to eventual gold medallists Ruttanapak Oupthing-Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat in the semi-finals.
Overall, Malaysia managed to return home with nine medals after the men’s team finished with silver while Leong Jun Hao, Justin Hoh (men’s singles), Wong Ling Ching (women’s singles), Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun (men’s doubles) and women’s team delivered bronze along with Tang Jie-Ee Wei.
The overall tally does exceed the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) official target of seven total medals.
Rexy though is not shying away from the shuttlers’ failure to meet the four-gold target set for them.
“We could not meet the four-gold target despite sending our top pairs for the Games,” said Rexy.
“If people say that I’m responsible for this defeat and asked me to step down, then I’m ready to do so.
“As the doubles coaching director, I’m willing to take full responsibility for this.
“The SEA Games seems easy but we can see from here, that it’s not straightforward.
“We hoped for golds from Aaron-Wooi Yik and Tang Jie-Ee Wei but only Pearly-Thinaah delivered.
“In football, if the players fail, the manager takes the fall, so it’s the same here,” added Rexy.
Aaron though believes that the responsibility should be collective and not just for one person to bear.
“I feel the responsibility is on all of us, not just coach Rexy,” said Aaron.
“He is the doubles coaching director and needs to handle a lot.
So, the most important is players need to shoulder the responsibility themselves.
“Let’s not push the responsibility to others. For example, if Rexy resigns, can whoever replace him guarantee golds?
“No, so instead of mentioning this, we need to go back, talk to our coaches and see how to solve our problem.”
Aaron also pointed out that he and his teammates did deliver medals even if not all of them were gold.
“At least we delivered nine medals which can hopefully help the overall medal tally in this SEA Games.
“Overall, the target was 200 medals. We might not have won more golds but at least we won something for the country,” added Aaron.
On his performance with Wooi Yik, Aaron said: “We made many mistakes. The Indonesians have been very consistent lately.
“It’s not easy to play against them. We need to study their game again.
“We have one more tournament to go this year and we have to bounce back.”
Aaron-Wooi Yik will next head to Hangzhou for the World Tour Finals starting on Wednesday.
