PETALING JAYA: The Philippine SEA Games later this year will be the new benchmark for the Malaysian badminton squad to prepare themselves for the tough challenge at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. President of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria said that although the biennial games only involved shuttlers from Southeast Asia, it would show the performance levels of the young Malaysian shuttlers compared to those from neighbouring countries.
He said this due to the poor performance of BAM shuttlers at the World Championship in Basel, Switzerland last month, who paled in comparison to players from Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. “That’s why I think our shuttlers and coaches should not adopt the ‘business as usual’ attitude, there should be goal congruence (with BAM). They should not take the SEA Games challenge lightly if they really want to give a good fight in Tokyo.” – Bernama
