RI women's coach Mei Hua to move to Malaysia
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)