KUALA LUMPUR: After days of speculation, former world number one men’s doubles pair, Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong have officially quit the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM).
BAM in a statement said the national badminton governing body decided to accept the resignations tendered by the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medal winning duo effective Jan 5.
“After careful consideration and following discussions with various stakeholders, BAM has reached the decision to accept the resignations.
“BAM would like to place on record sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Rio Olympics silver medallists for sharing the values, principles and philosophy of the association during their 17-year tenure with the national team.
“BAM also wishes them well as they embark on the next phase of their career,” BAM said today.
The news came without much surprise as the 2014 Glasgow gold medallists were struggling with inconsistent performances and had earlier mulled turning professional.
Both aged 29, were at the peak of their career in 2016 when they bagged the Olympics silver, ending the country’s 20-years medal drought in the men’s doubles department.
Malaysia last won the men’s doubles silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics through the Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock duo.
Ace shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei is now the only Rio medallist to remain under BAM after another Rio silver medallist (mixed doubles), Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying shocked the badminton fraternities by quitting BAM two weeks ago.
Prior to this, several players had decided to leave the national set-up due to various reasons, among them Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin (men’s singles); Tee Jing Yi (women’s singles) and Chooi Kah Ming and Lim Khim Wah (men’s doubles). — Bernama
