BANGKOK: National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky (pic) was not at all happy – but he was not about to point fingers.
Instead, he has accepted responsibility and has even offered to quit after the men’s doubles pair of Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik finished with silver, going down 14-21, 17-21 to Indonesia’s Sabar Gutama-Moh Reza yesterday.
The result saw the badminton team fail to deliver on the target of four golds.
Only women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah delivered gold after beating Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji-Meilysa Puspitasari at Thammasat University in Pathum Thani yesterday.
Rexy said he was ready to step aside.
“I’m ready to resign if this is what people want,” said the Indonesian. “We could not meet the target despite sending our top pairs, If people say I’m responsible as the doubles coaching director and ask me to step down, I’m ready to do so.
“I’m willing to take full responsibility.”
“We hoped for golds from Aaron-Wooi Yik and (mixed doubles pair of) Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei but only Pearly-Thinaah delivered.”
Reigning world champions Tang Jie-Ee Wei fell 15-21, 16-21 to eventual gold medallists Ruttanapak Oupthing-Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat in the semi-finals.
Aaron, however, feels the responsibility should be collective.
“The most important is that 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? Instead, we need to go back, talk to our coaches and see how to solve the problem.”
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.”
The pair will next play in the World Tour Finals in Hangzhou, which starts on Wednesday.
Aaron also said he and his teammates did deliver medals even if not all of them were gold.
“We delivered nine medals. Hopefully, that can help the overall medal tally in this SEA Games. Overall, the target was 200 medals.”
Malaysia’s nine medals came from the men’s team who 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.
