KUALA LUMPUR – Badminton legend Datuk Lee Chong Wei expressed bewilderment at Lee Zii Jia’s decision to decline the National Sports Council’s (NSC) offer to join the Road to Gold (RTG) programme.
Despite 25-year-old Zii Jia being the sole athlete among 15 elites not to sign the Letter of Commitment (LoC), Chong Wei, overseeing the badminton camp within RTG, conveyed a commitment to redirect their focus towards deserving athletes.
“Never, in the past, has any athletes rejected the assistance offered by the government,” he told Scoop when contacted
“Badminton is under my purview. We do not just focus on helping the national players attached to the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) but also the independent shuttlers, including Ong Yew Sin, Teo Ee Yi, Goh Soon Huat, and Tan Kian Meng.
“Kian Meng, for example, was taken off the list because his ranking dropped to 23 and Soon Huat dropped to 17.
“No matter what the situation is, there are always opportunities available to other elite athletes to be included in the RTG list because we evaluate their performance results every three months. So we will reconsider them back in the list once they improve their rankings.”
In April, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh and RTG programme coordinator Datuk Stuart Ramalingam met with Zii Jia to discuss his inclusion in the programme.
Following the meeting, Hannah said she was impressed by the shuttler’s desire to secure Malaysia’s first-ever Olympic gold at the Paris games next year, to which she said “Zii Jia supports the RTG initiative and is thankful to be included in this national project.”
Recently, she also confirmed the removal of independent doubles pairs Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai from RTG due to their failure to rank within the top 16 of Olympic qualification standings.
RTG, designed to prepare cream-of-the-crop athletes for the next two Olympics, offers additional support, including sports science, competition exposure, coaching, and a monthly allowance of RM3,000.
The programme welcomes the latest addition, weightlifter Mohamad Aniq Kasdan, currently ranked 10th in Olympic qualification, alongside established athletes such as track cyclists Azizulhasni Awang and Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom, and divers Pandelela Rinong and Nur Dhabitah Sabri.
Shuttlers Ng Tze Yong, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi, Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, and Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei are also included. – November 15, 2023