KUALA LUMPUR: Badminton mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei have received a timely morale boost after just launching their bid to win the Malaysian Masters title for the first time next week.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei were recognised as the Best Athlete of the 2025 Sports Writers Association of Malaysia (SAM)-100PLUS Awards on Wednesday (May 13).
The pair won for their outstanding achievement in winning the World Championships in Paris last year.
In the final at the Adidas Arena, the national pair defeated China's Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin 21-15, 21-14, thus ending Malaysia's wait to lift the world title in the mixed doubles event.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei beat several other established athletes, including three-gold medallist at the World Wushu Championships Tan Cheong Min and top bowler Rafiq Ismail.
Ee Wei said the award gave them additional motivation to continue working hard and bring more success to the country.
"We are very grateful to receive this award and I want to thank the Malaysian media who are always with us whether at the Badminton Academy Malaysia (ABM) or during tournaments," she said.
"I think this is one of the motivations for us to continue moving forward and we hope to give better results from now on.''
Ee Wei added that their focus will now be on the Malaysian Masters with the hope of giving the best results on home soil.
"Next week we will play in the Malaysian Masters and we hope to give the best results for Malaysia.”
Tang Jie added he went through a challenging period after suffering a previous injury but is optimistic they can overcome the challenges after a lengthy break.
“The injury is quite different as it forced me to focus fully on the recovery process.
"After that, I went back for a check-up and suffered the same injury again. It was quite difficult for me at that time.
"But I appreciate the coach (Nova Widianto) who told me me to recover completely before returning to the court.
“The nearly one-month break without participating in tournaments should help us regain the best performance.
"Although we did not compete in the Thomas Cup or Uber Cup tournaments, we still focused on training to find the best performance this season.
"Now I feel that things are getting better and I can perform well on the court," he said.
Despite their rise on the world stage, Tang Jie-Ee Wei have yet to taste success in the Malaysian Masters.
They first competed together in the 2023 edition but their campaign ended in the opening round after losing to Indonesia’s Rinov Rivaldy-Pitha Haningtyas Mentari.
The following year, they returned as the tournament’s top seeds but fell to fellow Malaysians Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie in the semi-finals.
Soon Huat-Shevon went on to win the title that year.
Last year, Tang Jie-Ee Wei did not compete together after being temporarily split following problems in their partnership.
Meanwhile, Rizal Hashim, who is a columnist for The Star, was also a big winner yesterday. He won the Best Special Report and took home the main prize for Sportswriter of the Year (Siebel Award).
