
Kuala Lumpur: Dissatisfied with their recent performance, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has drop World No. 11 mixed doubles pair Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing from its Commonwealth Games squad that will compete in Gold Coast, Australia from April 4 to April 15.
The pair has not been doing well since mid-2017, and they have been losing to teammates Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai at the recently concluded Malaysia Masters and Indonesia Masters in January 2018.
Goh/Lai have since risen to World No. 10 and were selected to replace Tan/Lai for the quadrennial event in Gold Coast.
In addition to Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai, Malaysia has also picked Rio Olympic silver medalists Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying to compete in the mixed doubles category at the XXI Commonwealth Games.
Malaysia’s women’s doubles player Woon Khe Wei who suffered a knee injury during the Badminton Asia Team Championships that was held in Alor Setar last week, was also removed from the Malaysian team and was replaced by Chow Mei Kuan.
Vivian Hoo, who partnered Woon Khe Wei to win the 2014 Commonwealth Games women’s doubles gold will form a scratch pair with Chow in the women’s doubles event.
BAM also hinted that former World Junior champion Goh Jin Wei’s position in the squad may also in doubt after her weak performance at the Asian women’s team meet last week.
“We still have until March 7 to submit the final name list, but Jin Wei’s place is not secure as women’s singles head coach is planning to replace her,” said president of BAM Norza Zakaria after BAM’s coaching and training committee meeting.