KUALA LUMPUR – Shuttlers Lee Zii Jia and Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing are still a part of the Road to Gold (RTG) programme, said its coordinator Datuk Stuart Ramalingam.
All three have dropped out of the top-10 world rankings, with men’s singles star Zii Jia in 11th and mixed doubles’ Kian Meng-Pei Jing in 18th.
It was previously announced that the criteria to be included in the high-performance programme, which aims to secure gold medals at the Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, is to be medal winners in the previous Olympics or ranked top 10 in the world.
“Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing will be retained now to ensure their performance is supported and will be reevaluated in September.
“Both Datuk Wira Lee Chong Wei and I have contacted Zii Jia directly and coach Wong Tat Meng to ensure the next meeting we have with him is in the coach’s presence.
“For now, Zii Jia will remain a part of RTG until we have the conversation with the coach and decide on the plan moving forward.
“The criteria (to be included in RTG) have been changed based on the technical recommendation for the points establishment of the Road to Paris badminton rankings.
“This is to ensure the inclusion of these athletes is taken into consideration as well,” he said at a press conference after the Road to Gold meeting at the National Sports Council in Bukit Jalil.
Meanwhile, Stuart added the athletes’ performance will be evaluated every three months and they will be removed from the programme if there is no improvement.
“In September, we will evaluate based on the suggested criteria in the meeting, which are their current performance, and current ranking in the Olympic points qualification.
“So, at that point in September, we will review where their position is based on the Olympic points ranking,” added Stuart.
When asked about Zii Jia’s announcement on taking a break from competitions, Stuart said this will be discussed in the meeting with coach Tat Meng.
“Zii Jia is not out of the benchmark, maybe based on performance but in terms of where he is in ranking, he is not out of the list.
“We know that the competitions that are ongoing now that there will be a rest period for many shuttlers in the region.
“We have already communicated to the coach, and we will have a meeting at the end of June with the coach to know what the recovery plans are.
“So, we believe he will come back based on a timeline that is comfortable to him and the coach and we will report the solutions back to the RTG committee.”
Meanwhile, the Badminton Association of Malaysia has proposed the inclusion of singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong and mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei to be part of the RTG programme. – The Vibes, June 19, 2023
