Bernama.com Malaysian National News Agency Stay Focused And Keep Your Feet On The Ground - Eddy Choong Sports March 21, 2007 17:05 PM KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (Bernama) -- Former badminton great, Datuk Eddy Choong Wednesday urged newly crowned All-England men's doubles champions Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong to remain level-headed and keep their feet on the ground. The seven-time All-England champion said he was proud of the duo's achievements but winning titles alone was not everything, "rather leaving behind a legacy for the young ones to follow and emulate is more paramount". "I hope we do not have to wait for another 25 years to win an All-England title or the Asian Games gold," said 77-year-old Eddy when met at the launching of the Asian Sports Awards, here. He said that during his generation, players competed in the All-England and other international events for national pride while the monetary factor was secondary. "Today's sports personalities fare better and receive handsome cash rewards when they do well. It is not wrong as they sacrifice much through time spent in training, being away from families, loved ones and sometimes because of their commitment to sports, they find it difficult to hold on to proper jobs. "However, money alone should not be the motive because if money supersedes your passion and love for the sport, it will be difficult to achieve success in the long run," he said. Such advice coming from a man who has seen it all over the past 60 years or so must not be taken lightly. Eddy won the All-England men's doubles title three years in a row from 1951 to 1953 with his brother Datuk David Choong. In 1953, he also won the men's singles title before reaching four other finals and winning three of them in 1954, 1956 and 1957. He lost the 1955 final to Wong Peng Soon of Singapore, which was then under the Federation of Malaya, and still lives to regret it. "I have been in the Real Estate and Housing industry for the past 50 years but I have never failed to follow the progress of badminton in the country. I have seen many players come and go but only those with the passion and desire to win, remain on court," he said. Kien Keat-Boon Heong who ended the country's 25-year wait to win the All-England men's doubles title on March 11 in Birmingham, added the Swiss Open title a week later. The duo, who are now unofficially the world number one pair, came home to a heroes' welcome last night and will prepare for the Asian Badminton Confederation (ABC) Championships in Johor Baharu from April 10-15. After the ABC, they will continue their quest in the Super Series by taking part in the Singapore and Indonesian Open in May. -- BERNAMA
Eddy Choong is a little bit short compared to other players but he was a really really good player.. won the AE title for many years. KKK/TBH need to win the AE consistently to match with Eddy Choong's achievement.
They have beaten the tops seeds consistenly. So they are the unofficial #1. In boxing they call it People's Champion without having the title.
fair enough i guess ..... the people's champion eh, sounds like Da Rock! i really wanna see them play against LYD/JJS now, they're the only pair in the top 5 whom they haven't played.
Give them a few more tournaments and I m sure it wud be official then. (someone here is very good at calculating the ranking pts. How many more tournaments do they need to win to confirm status as numero uno )
that's a rather simplistic view, you also have to take account how the other pairs perform. basically the world rankings are based on your 10 best points results over the last 12 months, and KKK/TBH now only have 5 (well, that 16 points is really misleading) tournaments to their name. so once they compete in 5 more tournaments, it's likely they'll be near the top if they consistently reach at least the semis.
5 more individual events, or 4 individual and 1 team event, would see them having 10 good tournaments for their ranking. If they perform at the current rate, winning 3 out of 5 tournaments (not counting Asian Games), they would surely top the ranking. If not, they may still top or at least come close.
In terms of Super Series Ranking, KKK/TBH are ranked No.1: 1 KOO Kien Keat TAN Boon Heong 34020404340202 WIJAYA Candra GUNAWAN ~ * Tony 27060404270603 ERIKSEN Jens LUNDGAARD HANSEN Martin 24300404243004 JUNG Jae Sung LEE Yong Dae 24260404242605 FU Haifeng CAI Yun 21480404214806 LEE Jae Jin HWANG Ji Man 16440303164407 KIDO Markis SETIAWAN Hendra 15060303150608 CHOONG Tan Fook LEE Wan Wah 14520404145209 LOGOSZ Michal MATEUSIAK Robert 14460404144609 TAN Bin Shen ONG Soon Hock 1446040414460
hahaha, why did they get only 16 points for the TC? is that because CCM/KKK got 32 points between them and had to share since they split up? seems kinda strange to me.
well well well, by my reckoning, if you scale up the number of points the current top pairs have according to the number of tournaments they have played out of 10, the revised table would look like: 1) WIJAYA Candra/GUNAWAN Tony - 70014 2) FU Haifeng/CAI Yun - 68282 3) KOO Kien Keat/TAN Boon Heong - 68060 4) ERIKSEN Jens/LUNDGAARD HANSEN Martin - 61597 5) JUNG Jae Sung/LEE Yong Dae - 56078 6) KIDO Markis/SETIAWAN Hendra - 55994 7) CHOONG Tan Fook/LEE Wan Wah - 48926 8) LEE Jae Jin/HWANG Ji Man - 47800 9) HADIYANTO Luluk/CHANDRA Alvent Yulianto - 47064 10) CLARK Anthony/BLAIR Robert - 45032 Tony! Tony! Tony! Candra! Candra! Candra!
only the top 8 pairs in seper series will be competing rite?? cant wait to see kkk/tbh to play against another 2 korean pairs.. there shud be some interesting matches!
yup, the plan is only for the top 8 singles and pairs to compete in the SS finals at the end of the season. i don't remember reading what the format of that would be like though .... that'll be interesting. i hope it's some kinda round-robin event like the copenhagen masters, or better still, a league table with all the pairs playing each other. 7 games each spread over 14 days, a match every 2 days, sounds feasible.
Eddy Chong was once PG's mentor when he was a teenager. I saw him coaching PG for around a month in an old badminton court in pg (demolished).
Did you really mean Peter Gade! But that must be years ago and you must be quite young since you are still under 30.
yeah........i was stil under 12 i believe. that time PG lost to some of our players in pg, chosen by Eddy to spar with him (same age). He still wasnt a good player that time. He must be 15 or 16....
Peter Gade ruled the world at one time. He was the world no.1 for about three years and taufik was the world no.2. at that time, malaysia relied on ong ewe hock, yong hock kin and rashid sidek.
