Mew Choo’s win set to benefit other women shuttlers By RAJES PAUL PETALING JAYA: Wong Mew Choo's fantastic win at the China Open is set to bring more cash flow to the Malaysian women's badminton players. The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), for a start, are set to review the incentive scheme for the women, which is currently lower than for the men. And more than that, there is hope that Mew Choo's success will pave the way for more women to rise up to the challenges to become world-beaters. Malaysia have been starved of women badminton stars for a long time. But it appeared to have ended with Mew Choo defying the odds to become the first Malaysian and only the second non-Chinese player to win the China Open women's singles title on Sunday. The 24-year-old showed that nothing was impossible when she overcame one Chinese player after another to bag her first ever-Open title. She defeated world champion Zhu Lin (in the quarter-finals), Athens Olympic Games winner Zhang Ning (semi-finals) and world number one Xie Xingfang (final). Mew Choo: Her achievements are a culmination of a lot of hard work and sacrifices. She is the second player after Denmark's Tine Rasmussen to overcome a barricade of Chinese players en route to winning an Open title this year. Rasmussen did it in Japan. On how the BAM intend to produce more female players in the mould of Mew Choo, their secretary, P. Ganga Rao, said: “Her achievement is a big boost to the women's players and it has given us reason to put more emphasis on them. “To ensure that there will be a steady flow of players, suggestions will be made to the exco to review the women's players incentives. Currently, a man ranked among the top two in the world gets an incentive of RM15,000 a month. Women in the same standing gets less than RM8,000.” He added that there were second echelon female players, led by Lydia Cheah, waiting in the wings. But they will find difficulty making drastic improvement if they do not get to spar with Mew Choo regularly. National coach Wong Tat Meng said that young Malaysian girls now have Mew Choo to look up to. “She has proved that the Chinese players are not as invincible as they used to be. She has also showed that Malaysian women can be at par with men as far as winning honours are concerned. She certainly has raised the interest among women players,” he said. “Her achievements are the results of a lot of hard work and sacrifices. She is a highly committed player and it is an honour for me to be her coach.” Tat Meng added that the China Open was the beginning of better things for Mew Choo. “She has become stronger, faster and more skilful to come up to match the Chinese players. But there are much more to be improved on to make her a complete player,” he said. “As a player, I have not achieved anything great. But as a coach, I have big dreams. My goal is to help her win at the Olympics. Now, I dare to say that this dream is possible with Mew Choo.”
I don't really understand our Sport Minister,Datuk Azalina thinking.She commented LCW loss about this time China Open in the malay newspaper.She said she was dissapointed with Chong Wei because whenever peoples expect he to win,he can't win but when others did not expect him to win,then he will win.Don't know why she made this kind of statement,can't she see LCW effort and what he acchive for the country first only made this kind of comment.She did the same thing when Nicol David lose recently.
ya dat's y... Hw can she say lik dat?? The main ting is nt own chong wei,it's da lineman n umpire affects him.. If wan2 comment bou cw n Nicol, better comment on Hafiz 1st.. At least CW did us proud win 3 ss titles. Hafiz???
if tat time the umpire dint gif mark to bao chunlai i think chong wei n mew choo sure get champion adi....but juz mew choo have champion...is unfair to chong wei....
Because she is aport minister, yapping with her mouth and not thinking with her brain. Advise to you, don't think too highly on minister intelligence
Minister are good in POLITICs that's why they are MINISTER but they know nothing about everything else!
Ministers are good in making the right friends and with a nose that can smell which way the political wind blows!!!
yeah, all credit to him, he has definitely produced the most consistent results of any of the MAS players this year.
Yup, when Nicol lost in World Cup, the sports minister actually said she wanted an explanation since the country invest so much in her. Winning 8 titles in a year still not enuf. Same thing happened to KKK/TBH in their recent slump. Sometimes BCers from other countries or Malaysians staying overseas dont fully understand the pressure our players are under. If government i.e. sports ministry & NSC also give so much pressure..... + the media being critical (esp the Bahasa Msia press)......
hard to say guys and gals..talk too much will bring us nowhere.. theres nothing we can do..i've realised this long ago...i can do nothing.. when the player won..celebration (tak ingat dunia) when the player lost...criticsms ( pun tak ingat dunia) so my decision..whether our players win or lose,i'll will avoid hearing statement from this lady..i gain nothing from it.. so guys..just ignore her statements..shes not lee chong wei,shes not hafiz,shes not beng hong,let her talked..just ignored the statements we will feel better.trust me..it works for me..