[size=-1]The Star Online > Sports[/size] Monday September 13, 2004 [size=+2]Only the junior shuttlers will be going for Euro tournaments[/size] BY RAJES PAUL PETALING JAYA: All players in the national badminton team have been grounded for two months. Except for the juniors gearing up for the World Junior Championships, the seniors and the back-up players in the national team set-up will not be sent for any international tournaments. They have been slated to make a return for the China Open from Nov 9-14. Besides the nine Olympians - Wong Choong Hann, Lee Chong Wei, Mohd Roslin Hashim, Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah, Chan Chong Ming-Chew Choon Eng and Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty - who came back from the Athens Games without any medals, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have also barred all the other players under their national team set-up from international competitions. The “international ban†will only be lifted after the BAM's “think tank†come out with a comprehensive programme targeted to win a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games within the next two months. With the decision, only the two of the selected six singles players - Azrihanif Azahar and Chong Wei Feng - will be going for the Dutch Open from Sept 28-Oct 3 and the Danish Open from Oct 5-10. The others – the 22-year-old Chong Wei, Kuan Beng Hong, Yeoh Kay Bin and K. Yogendran – who were initially selected by the singles chief coach Misbun Sidek for the two meets in Europe, will not be going after all. Doubles chief coach Yap Kim Hock's charges dropped from the Europe stint are Koo Kien Keat-Gan Teik Chai, Tan Bin Shen-Ong Soon Hock in the men's category and sole women's doubles representatives Eei Hui-Pei Tty. Azrihanif and Wei Feng, are members of the junior team currently in training for the world meet, scheduled to be held in Vancouver, Canada from Oct 21-30. More juniors gearing up for the world meet are expected to replace the seniors for the two Opens in Europe. The others currently in training are Tan Chun Seang, Mohd Hafiz Shaharuddin, Mohd Syafiq Jamaluddin, Lim Kenn, Tan Boon Heong-Hoon Thien How and Mohd Razif Rahman-Lok Chong Chieh. BAM secretary P. Ganga Rao said that he would get the approval from the organisers to substitute junior players for the European tournaments. “It is a “freeze from international tournaments†for all our players under the current national set-up. It is pointless to send them out when we do not have a long-term programme for them yet. We have had our post-mortem and are in the process of re-structuring our training programmes. Some of the athletes (the Olympians) will give us feedback on their failures to help us plan for the future of the other players,†said Ganga. “For now, we have only made an exception for the World Junior Championships. Misbun and Kim Hock will give me new names of the juniors for this back-to-back tournaments on Monday. We will submit their names subject to the organisers approval.†On when the ban on the national players would be lifted, Ganga said that they hoped to resume their chase for honours in international tournaments after the players attend a special workshop in October. “After that, we will be able to lay out our plans for the players. Then, they can go out and continue playing in international tournaments. They will be back on their feet probably when the World Grand Prix badminton circuit continues with the China Open in November. We do not want to take too long to come out with our new plan,†he added. There are three more Open tournaments after the China Open. They are the Opens in Singapore (Nov 15-21), Taiwan (Nov 30-Dec 5) and Hong Kong (Dec 6-12).
