Koo and Tan to stay together until after 2012 London Games

PETALING JAYA: The top men’s doubles pair of Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong, who did not perform to expectations at the recent World Championships in London, will be left alone to carry on playing together until after the Olympics next year.

Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Datuk Seri Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh maintained yesterday that they will not make major changes as the London Olympics will be taking place eleven months from now.

“The most important aspect we have to focus on is to find ways to overcome the weaknesses in their game and making sure they will place themselves in the top four at the end of the qualifying period in April next year.

“We have decided not to do anything drastic with the Olympic Games now less than a year away but we leave it to the coaching and training committee to decide on ways to bring them up again,” said Nadzmi.

Kien Keat-Boon Heong were seen as one of the contenders for the world title aside from top singles player Lee Chong Wei but instead they suffered a tame defeat at the hands of South Korean bogey pair Ko Sung-hyun and Yoo Yeon-seong in the quarter-final stage at the world meet.

The former All-England champions and world No. 1 pair have dropped a spot to fifth position in the latest world rankings, with their place in the top four taken by their conquerors in the world meet Sung-hyun-Yeon-seong.

Kien Keat-Boon Heong will compete in the China Masters and Japan Open next month.

The BAM exco yesterday also decided to allocate an additional RM1.6mil to strengthen the development programmes for the respective affiliates.

It is the biggest amount allocated for development purposes.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 2:14 PM. Filed under Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0