Tat Meng, Mee Fen raise concerns after Asian Junior Championships failure

The Star

5 days ago

PETALING JAYA: Former coaches Wong Tat Meng ( pic ) and Ng Mee Fen have raised concerns regarding the junior shuttlers' poor performance in the Asian Junior Championships in Solo, Indonesia, which ended on Sunday (July 27).
Malaysia had a disappointing outing, returning home empty-handed from the tournament for the second time in the past three editions after a similar failure in 2023.
Tat Meng, who was singles coach in the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) from 2003 to 2011 and 2013 to 2016 and Mee Fen, who was a junior coach in the national team for four years, expressed their concern via social media over the poor outing, especially in the singles.
None of the players in the boys' and girls' singles even made it into the quarter-finals in the individual event.
"Am I the only one who wonders what happened to our junior player's performance in the Asian Junior meet in Solo?" questioned Mee Fen.
"It's worrisome, especially in the singles department. Most of our current senior players can play for another Olympic cycle, but we have yet to identify the junior players who can replace the seniors in five years' time.
"Challenging time ahead for the juniors, and hopefully actions will be taken to improve the standard of the players before it's too late."
Tat Meng, who responded to Mee Fen's post, said: "Thanks for raising this. You're definitely not the only one concerned."
"I'm actually here in Solo watching the Asian Junior meet, and I have to say, it was disappointing and quite sad to see that none of our singles players made it to the quarter-finals.
"Even though I'm no longer based in Malaysia, I still care deeply, especially having been part of the national coaching set-up in the past.
"It really makes me question what has been going wrong with our junior development system for the past how many years? I don't know.
"We have talent, no doubt but something fundamental isn't translating into results at the international level.
"It's time for an honest review and a clear long-term direction. Otherwise, we risk an even more serious gap in our singles department moving forward," added Tat Meng.