RI women's coach Mei Hua to move to Malaysia

JAKARTA (JP): It has been confirmed that Indonesian women's singles coach Kho Mei Hua will begin coaching the Malaysian squad on Monday, although she recently denied the report.

The New Straits Times newspaper reported on Sunday that Mei Hua, formerly an assistant to Susy Susanti's coach Liang Chiusia, would begin coaching the Malaysian squad on Monday, following discussions with Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) consultant Indra Gunawan of Indonesia.

Mei Hua was unable for comment but her departure was confirmed by her friend Lidya Djaelawidjaja, Indonesia's number one women's shuttler.

"Mei Hua left this morning for Malaysia. She didn't want her departure to be made public because she did not want her move to become a controversy," Lidya told The Jakarta Post by phone on Sunday.

Mei Hua denied on Friday that she was moving to Malaysia, saying she had never had any serious discussions with Indra or BAM. She also said she planned to take a few days off in Semarang.

"I met with Indra at the Jakarta Open in April but we only talked as friends since we haven't seen each other for quite some time. We didn't have a serious discussion about whether I would move to Malaysia," she said on Friday. She also denied reports that she had planned to move to Australia.

Meanwhile, BAM decided on Saturday not to host the final of next year's Thomas-Uber Cup, declining the offer of local company Goldbridge Engineering, the rights holder to the event, to host the biennial tournament. BAM said it would instead focus on the Feb. 17 to Feb. 24 qualifying rounds of the event.

BAM president Datuk Nadzmi Salleh said the national badminton body had decided to focus on improving the performance of the Malaysian squad.

"We felt that we should not accept the job as host and decided to decline the offer as there are many things to focus on next year, like the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games," he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency. (yan)