KUALA LUMPUR: National para-badminton player Muhammad Ikhwan Ramli is targeting a semi-final spot in the men’s WH1 (wheelchair) singles at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
Known fondly as ‘Kechik,‘ Muhammad Ikhwan considers this goal realistic, as Paris 2024 will be his debut at the prestigious Games.
“I’m quite nervous because this is my first Paralympics. It has been challenging to accumulate points and compete in consecutive tournaments, but Alhamdulillah, I’ve achieved my goal of making it to Paris 2024,
“I don’t want to specify my exact target just yet; my immediate focus is on reaching the semi-finals. Insyaallah, I’ll give it my all and hope to bring back a medal for Malaysia,” he told Bernama recently.
Muhammad Ikhwan is aware of the stiff competition he will face from players representing China, South Korea and Japan.
The world number three will also be partnering Noor Azwan Noorlan in the WH1-WH2 (wheelchair) men’s doubles.
Noor Azwan, also competing in the WH2 singles, said he is concentrating on their doubles performance for his first Paralympic appearance.
He acknowledged the difficulty of building effective teamwork with Muhammad Ikhwan, given the limited number of training partners available compared to other nations.
“For example, South Korea have many pairs, but we only have two. We sometimes need to get players from elsewhere and those from different categories, which affects our training,” he said.
Despite these challenges, Noor Azwan said video analysis of other teams’ doubles play and their previous competition experiences have helped improve their on-court coordination.
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will take place from Aug 28 to Sept 8.
