KUALA LUMPUR: Competition for badminton events at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur Sea Games from Aug 22 to 29 will see shuttlers vying for seven gold medals.
Malaysia are pinning their hopes on national women’s doubles Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei as well as the mixed doubles pair of Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Lai Jamie to deliver the two target gold medals.
Apart from that, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) is also targeting two silver and four bronze medals.
Even though there is no target set for the men’s singles represented by Lee Zii Jia and Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin, they are expected to create some upsets.
BAM president Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria when contacted by Bernama believed Iskandar had improved since the arrival of men’s singles chief coach Datuk Misbun Sidek who managed to spur the player.
“With Misbun’s assistance, I feel we have a chance at men’s singles gold. If it is not Iskandar, maybe Zii Jia. They have show serious determination and are in top form without any injuries,” he said.
Mohamad Norza said Iskandar and Zii Jia however should look out for Jonatan Christie of Indonesia who is ranked 23rd in the world and Ihsan Maulana (47th), Khosit Phetpradab (40th) and Suppanyu Avihingsanon (57th) of Thailand as well as Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh (54th).
He added Iskandar, the reigning national champion is ranked 52nd would know who are his opponents after draw on Aug 21 at the team managers’ meeting.
Badminton will start with the team event on Aug 22 before the individual events begin on Aug 26.
In Singapore two years ago, the national team garnered two gold medals in the men’s singles and women’s doubles.-- BERNAMA