KUALA LUMPUR: national men’s singles champion Lee Chong Wei is ready to sacrifice his desire to become the World Championships men’s singles champion with the prestigious tournament taking place next month (July) in Nanjing, China, in order to focus on the Asian Games which will be held in Indonesia come August.
National men’s singles coach, Hendrawan said that if the two are compared with one another, the Asian Games which takes place once every four years is more important as it will most likely be Chong Wei’s last appearance at the Games.
“From earlier this year itself, Chong Wei’s main focus for this year has been the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. While the Commonwealth Games has ended, we have the Asian Games coming up soon.
“Chong Wei will still take part in the World Championships, it’s just that he will not be putting high hopes on coming out tops because it takes place every year and he will still have his chance next year. The Asian Games is more important as it is his main target,” said Hendrawan.
Hendrawan said that the 36-year-old World No 7 will face a tough challenge preparing for the Asian Games as it takes place just 10 days after the World Championships end.
The World Championships take place from July 30 to August 5 while the Asian Games opens on August 18 and ends on September 2.
“It can be said that the period between the World Championships and the Asian Games is quite short. This is why the focus will be more on the Games because that is Chong Wei’s main target, it will be a tall order but I firmly believe that Chong Wei can come out tops,” he said.
Before the World Championships, Chong Wei will also take part in the Malaysia Open from June 26 to July 1, as well as the Indonesian Open (July 3-8).
Even though he is 36-years-old, Chong Wei’s determination to compete at the highest level is as strong as ever and it is proven through his performance in the recently concluded Thomas Cup competition in Bangkok last week where he emerged undefeated despite Malaysia exiting in the quarter-finals.
In fact, he also got the better of World No 1, Dane Viktor Axelsen during the group stage.
“As I’ve said before, what is most important for Chong Wei is his unwavering spirit and will to succeed. If he still has it then there’s no problem for him to keep on going,” stressed Hendrawan.