PETALING JAYA: Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie have no intention of calling it quits despite seeing their hopes of winning a World Championships medal end once again.
Soon Huat-Shevon remained without a win over Chinese opposition this year after going down 15-21, 12-21 to Cheng Xing-Zhang Chi in the third round at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Thursday.
The defeat was even harder to take as the Malaysians had beaten the same pair at the Malaysian Open in January.
Shevon admitted the result was disappointing but said it had not changed their decision to keep competing on the international circuit.
The husband-and-wife pair had already discussed their future and agreed to continue playing together despite a run of disappointing results in recent months.
At 36 and 33 respectively, Soon Huat and Shevon are among the oldest mixed doubles players still competing at the highest level, but Shevon believes having something to chase has given her fresh motivation.
“I’m a very goal-driven person. If I don’t have a clear direction or something to look forward to, I tend to lose motivation and confidence,” said Shevon. “But since we made the decision to continue fighting together, it has given me new hope.
“I’ll also be working with a new coach, so that will be another challenge for me. In a way, it has motivated me to pick myself up again and regain my momentum.
“Since we have decided to continue, why not give it everything we have and make the most of however many tournaments we still have left?
“That has helped me a lot. Emotionally, I also feel that I can handle things much better now and I’m more confident in dealing with my own challenges.” said Shevon in a post match interview with BWF.
Soon Huat-Shevon are now under the guidance of Ameer Amri Zainuddin, with Teo Kok Siang set to join the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) on Sept 1.
The pair have twice come within one win of securing a World Championships medal, reaching the quarter-finals in Huelva in 2021 and Tokyo in 2022.
Their run ended earlier in Paris last year, where they were eliminated in the third round.
