Malaysia's badminton player Lee Chong Wei in action at the Sudirman Cup last month, after returning from his 8-month doping ban. - AFP
SINGAPORE: Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) technical director Morten Frost targets four finals at the Singapore SEA Games.
But it’ll be the luck of the draw that will determine if that happens, according to Frost after overseeing the players’ first training session in Singapore on Sunday.
“It’s not going to be easy to make four finals now, that’s for sure. But it’s still not impossible either,” said Frost who has set his eyes on the men’s team, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles finals.
“Now we’ll have to see how the draw turns out and we’ll take it from there.”
The badminton draw will be released on Tuesday, a day before the team event starts on Wednesday.
The Dane, who is back in his second stint with the Malaysian camp, however, believes there’s a fighting chance with former world No.1 Lee Chong Wei onboard.
“With Chong Wei, who is still one of the world’s best singles shuttler, and the men’s pair of Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong, we still have the edge.
“In fact V Shem-Wee Kiong always play well in team events and they even defeated world No.1 pair of Lee Yong-dae-Yoo Yeon-seong last month so they are a safe bet for us.”
But with the exception of Chong Wei who was impressive at the Sudirman Cup after his eight-month ban, the rest are all struggling to find form.
Chong Wei, who will only compete in the team event, is slated to play as the second singles.
If Malaysia are to regain the team title they last won in 2005 in Manila, they will need Chong Wei Feng (first singles) and V Shem-Wee Kiong to step up big.
Malaysia’s main threat in the team event will be Indonesia, who are led by a quartet of teenagers – Jonatan Christie, Ihsan Maulana Mustofa, Firman Abdul Kholik and Anthony Ginting.
At the Indonesian Open last week, both Jonatan and Anthony played extremely in beating higher ranked players to reach the quarter-finals.
The Star Online
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