KUALA LUMPUR: National mixed doubles specialist Chan Peng Soon says now is the best time for him and his partner, Goh Liu Ying to leave the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and become professionals.
Peng Soon said the move would be a win-win for both parties.
“I am leaving BAM due to my age, nothing else. But this will be a win-win situation for both us and BAM,” he told reporters after a meet-and-greet session with fans of the Ampang Jaya Badminton Club (AJBC) at Midvalley Megamall here, yesterday.
The 30-year-old, who won the silver medal in the mixed doubles event at the Rio Olympics with Liu Ying in 2016, said the pairs next focus was to find sponsors to continue participating in international tournaments next year and accumulate qualifying points for the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
“Currently Liu Ying and I are still looking for sponsors, and the more sponsors we have, we will be able to participate in more tournaments and collect points to enable us to qualify for Tokyo 2020,” he said, adding that they had already secured an equipment sponsor as well as support from air conditioning firm, Daikin.
The pair have a busy schedule ahead of them with the Thailand Masters from Jan 8-13, Malaysia Masters (Jan 15-20) and Indonesia Masters (Jan 22-27).
Meanwhile, two-time world junior champion Goh Jin Wei said her current focus was to qualify for Tokyo 2020 and the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in the Philippines next year.
“I will give full focus on the SEA Games although I will be participating in more senior-level championships next year,
however, qualifying for the Olympics cannot be overlooked either,” she said.
Also present at the event was world number one men’s singles player Kento Momota of Japan, who will be playing for AJBC in the 2018/19 SS Purple League season.-Bernama
