Hendrawan willing to help anyone become a world champion

KUALA LUMPUR: As a player, Hendrawan reached the pinnacle when he bagged the world men’s singles crown in the championships in Seville in 2001.

And the generous Indonesian is willing to help Lee Chong Wei achieve the same goal in this year’s championships, which will be held in Hyderabad from Aug 10-16.

Hendrawan got down to work with the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) as one of their singles coaches at the Juara Stadium in Bukit Kiara here yesterday.

For a start, he has been given the task to take charge of the four elite back-up shuttlers but he is willing to help anyone, including Chong Wei.

“Chong Wei can have a discussion with me. I am always available to share my experience with him.

“I have the time as my family is not here and I am staying at the same place with the players,” said Hendrawan, who was the silver medallist in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“As the world No. 1, there is bound to be pressure from all sides and I should have no problem helping him to handle things.

“I feel that he has a good chance in the coming world championships and he should be given every support in his bid to become the first Malaysian badminton world champion.”

Hendrawan added that he also had no problem helping the two other Malaysian men’s singles players bound for the world championships, Wong Choong Hann and Lee Tsuen Seng, even though the duo were no longer with the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) stable.

Choong Hann is currently on his own while Tsuen Seng is with KLRC Bhd.

“If they want to come for sparring with my players to prepare for the world championships, it should be no problem. That is if it is all right with the BAM,” said Hendrawan.

The 37-year-old was busy as a bee on his first official day at work. He flitted from court to court to check on the techniques of the players.

In the absence of Misbun Sidek, who had to attend to a personal matter, Hendrawan also helped in shuttle drills with Chong Wei, Mohd Hafiz Hashim and Kuan Beng Hong.

Hendrawan added that he had no plan to make immediate changes to the training programme.

“I prefer to follow the existing programme for at least the first two weeks.

“It is also important for me to get to know the players first before doing any evaluation on them,” he said.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 11:32 AM. Filed under Hendrawan, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0