KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) today confirmed the contract of the national men’s singles coach Hendrawan will not be extended.
Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) coaching director Rexy Mainaky said the 52-year-old coach was made aware of the decision after a meeting this morning.
“We thank Hendrawan because he has contributed to BAM for 15 years. He also helped BAM get a silver medal at the Olympic Games and charted Lee Zii Jia’s rise to fame as a champion,” he said after a national team training session at ABM here today.
Hendrawan started his work in Malaysia in 2009 and was once the national men’s singles back-up coach.
The 2001 world champion guided former national men’s singles champion Datuk Lee Chong Wei to silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In the meantime, Rexy also announced the restructuring of the coaching lineup for the senior and national back-up squads.
Rexy said the reshuffle is to improve the performance of the shuttlers, especially the men’s and women’s singles and women’s doubles departments.
“We hope that with this restructuring, we can produce more champions. Right now, the men’s and women’s singles departments are quite stagnant, so we need new coaches who can bring in new knowledge and fresh ideas.
“We have identified several candidates and the most important thing is that the coach is the best and has ideas to introduce changes,” he said.
Based on the new restructuring announced today, only the head coaches of the mixed doubles and men’s doubles teams, namely, Nova Widianto and Tan Bin Shen, managed to retain their positions, while the head coaches for the men’s and women’s singles and women’s doubles teams will be announced later.
In addition, several back-up coaches will be promoted, including Jeffer Rosobin, who will take on the role of women’s singles coach.
Women’s doubles head coach Hoon Thien How and men’s singles coach Datuk Tey Seu Bock were reassigned to train the back-up squads.
— Bernama
