What’s next for Team Malaysia?

RIO DE JANEIRO — Two stars faded into the Olympics background while a new one is ready to take their place.

Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan said farewell to the Games with the Malaysian winning his third silver medal and two-time champion Lin Dan ending his campaign empty-handed, passing the torch to a player who is likely to rule the badminton world in the coming decade — Viktor Axelsen.

The long cool Dane defeated his idol Lin Dan in the play-off for bronze. At 22, Axelsen was a world junior champion in 2010 and lost the 2011 final to Malaysia’s Zulfadli Zulkifil.

Zulfadli has practically vanished from the scene while Axelsen won bronze at the 2014 World Championships. He is also European champion and helped Denmark win this year’s Thomas Cup.

Malaysia must learn from Axelsen’s rise.

He was sent to tournaments months after his world junior win to prepare for life at the top.

It started with the satellite and challenger series before going on to the Grand Prix then Grand Prix Gold before he finally earned enough ranking points to be among the elite in the Superseries and Superseries Premier tournaments.

Similarly, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon played in the qualifiers of the Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold in Johor Baru in 2009 — when she was only 14 — and used it as part of her preparations for the World Junior Championships that year.

She won the title in Alor Star, and retained it Guadalajara in 2010 and Taiwan in 2011.

Two years later in China, she became world champion.

Again, Thailand looked at the bigger picture and didn’t decide she was too young to be playing in big tournaments.

In Malaysia, our players are considered young at 22.

Nur Dhabitah Sabri is the “baby” of the contingent and came to Rio as a learning experience as she has a bright future. She nearly won a medal in the 3m springboard synchronised event with Cheong Jun Hoong.

Dhabitah, 17, also took part in the 10m platform which was won by China’s Ren Qian — who is only 15!

Going back to badminton … what does the future hold?

Where do we go from the three silver medals?

No one expected Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying and Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong to reach the finals of the mixed and men’s doubles respectively but the gold they were hoping for from Chong Wei failed to materialise when Chen Long stopped him in Saturday’s final.

Chong Wei’s career is likely to be over next year when he plays in his final World Championships. Who is there to replace him?

At the moment, there is no one even remotely capable of taking over.

Now is the time for BA of Malaysia to do some soul searching and expose as many youngsters as possible to as many overseas tournaments as possible.

We have a precious talent in Goh Jin Wei, who must be nurtured correctly and wisely for Malaysia to get the best out of her.

She is only 16 but already a world junior winner. Chong Wei himself said six years ago she had the potential to go far.

Start planning now or we will be left disappointed.

As for the other two silver medallists, age is not on their side. That is not to say they won’t be a threat.

Their problem has always been their consistency or rather, the lack of.

That is what separates Chong Wei from the rest of the pack. No matter how poorly he plays, he almost always reaches at least the semifinals of any tournament he is part of.

Rio must be the springboard for Peng Soon-Liu Ying and V Shem-Wee Kiong to emulate their “big brother”.

They have won surprise medals and having known both pairs for a long time, can vouch for their desire to succeed.

The question now is, how far can they go?

We’ll know in Tokyo.

Source : Malay Mail Online | All http://ift.tt/2bEWTZy

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