National badminton players advised to take advantage of latest training opportunities

GEORGE TOWN: National badminton players should take advantage of the latest training equipment and regimes to train harder to achieve sporting glory.
1967 Thomas Cup winner and Malaysian captain Datuk Teh Kew San said success is in the hands of the players and they should strive to excel with the use of coaches, facilities and training regiments.
"During my time, we did not have great or modern training facilities like now. The players of today are very lucky as they have a bright future in the field of badminton," he said at a press conference on Saturday when he was feted to a dinner by his peers on his 80th birthday. Among those who hosted the dinner were his teammates Datuk Yew Cheng Hoe, Tan Aim Huang, Datuk Tan Yee Khan, Datuk Ng Boon Bee and Datuk Billy Ng.
Also present were Datin Maggie Chong wife of the late Datuk Eddy Choong, Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari and also Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Tengku Tan Sri Dr Mahaleel Tengku Ariff.
Teh cemented his place in badminton lore when he led Malaysia to beat Indonesia 6-3 in front of a boisterous Jakarta crowd with his versatile style of playing.
Playing both single and doubles, he not only outfought opponents by his agility and expert wrist work, he also out-thought them with his ability to read plays on the fly.
In a career spanning the 1950s and 1960s, Teh won the All England doubles title in 1959 while his singles titles came in the Mexico City International in 1960 and the 1962 Asian Championships.
Meanwhile, Mahaleel said the country needed to create a bigger pool of shuttlers to remain competitive internationally and in order to do there is a need to increase badminton competitions among schools at state levels to source for talent.
He pointed out that China currently has 3,800 active players compared to Malaysia's 1,800 and this clearly indicates the need for more competent players.
Mahaleel noted private sector initiatives like the Kopiko Purple League was a good step forward to increase the talent pool.
He said BAM did not have enough funds to go at it alone and welcome joint initiatives between the public and private spheres.