Datuk Kenny Goh (second from left) during the contingent's performance review in Bangkok. - Bernama
BANGKOK: Failing to meet the four-gold medal target at the Thailand SEA Games should not trigger a knee-jerk reaction against the national badminton camp.
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh said it would be unfair to judge the shuttlers harshly for winning one gold medal from Bangkok through the women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah.
"I think we can’t be too quick to pass judgement on them," said Kenny, who is also the contingent's deputy chef de mission.
"Because in badminton, there are short-term as well as long-term plans, and we have set milestones for the athletes to hit.
"The most important thing is that they reach those milestones, because that shows we are on the right track.
However, Kenny admitted that the national camp's performance at the Thailand SEA Games was slightly below par.
Besides the gold in the women’s doubles, the men’s doubles duo Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik brought home silver, and reigning mixed doubles world champions Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei settled for bronze.
"One of those milestones is of course, the SEA Games, and perhaps we didn’t quite reach it.
"But we did meet our targets at the World Tour Finals.
Four BAM pairs qualified for the ongoing Finals in Hangzhou, China and they were Aaron-Wooi Yik, Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun, Pearly-Thinaah and Tang Jie-Ee WEi.
"So we have to keep monitoring these milestones. As long as they are met, our players are progressing and we don’t have to be overly worried."
But Kenny assured that BAM will conduct a proper review to identify what went wrong at the SEA Games.
"We need to sit down and figure out what actually happened and what the real factors were, so that we don't go off track next time," he said.
