Singapore: Technical director of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), Morten Frost expected his shuttlers to finish in at least four finals at the Singapore SEA Games.
“It depends on how the tournament draw process would look like, it’s not easy, but don’t rule out the possibility of it happening,” said Morten Frost, who has set his target of reaching finals in men’s team, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
The badminton team event will start on Wednesday, whereas the badminton draw will be announced on Tuesday.
Morten Frost however, is quite confident that with Lee Chong Wei as second men’s singles in the team event, Malaysia has a high chance to regain the team title they last won in 2005, in the Manila SEA Games.
“There’s no questioning Lee Chong Wei’s ability to score a point in team event. Look at his recent performance at the Sudirman Cup.”
“Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong always able to lift their level of play in the team event. They’ve defeated Lee Yong-dae/Yoo Yeon-seong in our first Sudirman Cup tie against South Korea few weeks ago.”
Malaysia’s biggest rival in the team event would be Indonesia. There’s a great chance that Indonesian youngsters Jonatan Christie, Ihsan Maulana Mustofa, Firman Abdul Kholik and Anthony Ginting who gave a good run for their money in the recently concluded Indonesia Open could crash the party for the Malaysian team.
Malaysia has the pieces to win gold in the men’s team event and Chong Wei Feng (Malaysia’s first men’s singles) or Mohd Arif Abdul Latif (third singles) would have to step up a gear to hold off stiff challenge from their rivals, Indonesia.
