30/07/2025

SPORTS WEDNESDAY | JULY 30, 2025

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Poor showing at BAJC no surprise: Jonassen THE failure of Malaysia’s singles shuttlers to reach the quarterfinals at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships (BAJC) 2025 in Solo, Indonesia, came as no surprise to national singles coaching director Kenneth Jonassen. gles and doubles departments falling short. This year’s results mark a significant drop from their 2024 performance, when the national jun ior squad returned with one silver and three bronze medals.

BRENTFORD are not willing to sell DR Congo forward Yoane Wissa, 28, to Newcastle at any price unless they sign a replacement first. MANCHESTER UNITED have joined the race to sign RB Leipzig and Slovenia forward Benjamin Sesko, 22, who is also in talks with Newcastle. CHELSEA are closing in on a deal worth more than £34.8m (RM197m) to sign 19-year-old Netherlands defender Jorrel Hato from Ajax. MAN UNITED have made a bid of £35m (RM198m) for Sporting mid fielder Morten Hjulmand, 26, but the Portuguese club want at least £43.4 (RM245m) for the Denmark interna tional, who is also a target for Juventus. LEEDS have missed out on Igor Paixao, 25, despite lodging an improved second bid with Feyenoord as the Brazilian winger looks set to join Marseille. NOTTINGHAM FOREST are eyeing a move for Fulham and Spain winger Adama Traore, 29, who previously worked with manager Nuno Espirito Santo at Wolves. CHELSEA have no intention of sell ing Spain left-back Marc Cucurella, 27, amid speculation with clubs in Saudi Arabia. ASTON VILLA and England mid fielder Morgan Rogers, 23, is a top tar get for Chelsea and the Blues are ready to offer England defender Tosin Adarabioyo, 27, and Senegal striker Nicolas Jackson, 24, as well as a fee to secure a deal. No pastries on menu for shuttlers THE national singles shuttlers are head ing to Denmark, and it’s training, not pas tries, on the menu. With the World Championships 2025 in Paris fast approaching, national singles coaching director Kenneth Jonassen said the squad will undergo a week-long training camp at the Denmark national training centre in Copenhagen ahead of the prestigious tournament, which runs from Aug 25-31. Jonassen, who requested the arrangement, said the training stint with the Danish national team is aimed at rais ing the Malaysian players’ sparring inten sity, exposing them to a different training environment, and helping them adapt to European conditions. “We found that it would be a good solution for us to go and get some addi tional higher sparring level and to accli matise (in Europe) “So for us, I see it as a win-win situa tion, and we cherish this opportunity to go and prepare well for the World Championship,” he told reporters when met at a training session here today. When asked whether Malaysian play ers would train alongside Danish stars such as Anders Antonsen, the 51-year old said such matters were beyond his control. “I expect there will be top players there, but in what capacity, how many sessions per day, and other details, that’s not up to me. “Denmark have a lot of players, so there are many opportunities for us to change up our training environment,” he said. – Bernama TOUCHLINES

actually, what you need is to continue down the path you’ve already taken, maybe with a few tweaks, and then you can deliver results eventu ally,” he said. High hopes had been placed on girls’ doubles pair Dania Sofea Zaidi-Low Zi Yu – silver medal lists at the last World Junior Championships – but they fell 21-19, 21-12 to China’s Cao Zi Han-Chen Fan Shu Tian in 42 minutes. There was also disappointment in the mixed doubles as both Malaysian pairs crashed out. Loh Ziheng-Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan lost 21-18, 21-12 to Indonesia’s Ikhsan Lintang Pramudya-Rinjani Kwinara Nastine, while Datu Anif Isaac Datu Asrah-Dania Sofea were beaten 21-23, 21-7, 21-13 by China’s Chen Jun Ting-Cao Zi Han. Malaysia had also exited in the mixed team quarterfinals. – Bernama

The Dane, who has been working closely with the junior squad over the past several months, said he and his team had identified three key areas for immediate focus moving forward: physicality, tactical discipline and mental resil ience. Although several juniors are currently training with the senior national squad, Jonassen warned against expecting quick results. “Just because we made some changes, with them now training with the senior team, it’s not that easy. Development doesn’t happen over night. It’s a long process. “Everybody wants changes all the time. But

Jonassen said that while the outcome may appear disappointing, it aligned with his expec tations going into the recently concluded tour nament held at the GOR Indoor Manahan Solo. “Am I disappointed? Maybe for some individ ual performances that I thought could have been better. But my expectations were met, so to speak. “I know where we are. I understand and I fully accept that we have an ambition a lot more than we produced this time,” he told reporters during a training session in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Malaysia ended their campaign at the 2025 BAJC without a single medal, with both the sin

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29/07/2025

7878 0171 0677

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N ATIONAL top women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah have risen to a career-high world No. 2 in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings released yesterday. Pearly-Thinaah climbed one spot with 89,416 points, trailing only China’s Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning, who remain in the top position with 111,634 points. The new status for the duo brightens their chances of reaching the podium at the World Badminton Championships in Paris next month. This was expressed by the National Doubles Coaching Director, Rexy Mainaky, who believes that his players are capable of challenging world champions, including those from China, to achieve positive results at the prestigious tournament. “The effort to be ranked second in the world is not easy. They have to compete against many top pairs from China, South Korea and Japan. “It really requires extra effort and full com mitment,” said Rexy. “I hope they can continue their confidence and bring home medals from the World Championship.” The new seeding will ensure the Pearly Thinaah avoid meeting world No. 1 pair from China, Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning, in the prelimi nary draw leading up to the final match of the World Championship. However, they will need to overcome world No. 7 pair from China, Jia Yi Fan-Zhang Shu Xian, who have a 4-1 record against national pairs and defeated them in Changzhou on Saturday. Former national women’s doubles pair, Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty were the last

Malaysian pair to reach this high, back in 2009. Meanwhile, another national pair, Go Pei Kee-Teoh Mei Xing, broke into the top 20, mov ing up two spots to rank 20th with 45,090 points. In men’s doubles, China Open 2025 run ners-up Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik maintained their second-place ranking with 94,950 points, behind Japan Open 2025 champions Kim Won Ho-Seo Seung Jae of South Korea with 99,405 points. Former world No. 1 and professional pair Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani dropped one spot to fourth with 80,980 points. In mixed doubles, national duo Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei returned to the top three with 85,013 points, climbed one spot from fourth. Independent pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie dropped two spots to eighth place with 72,998 points, while national pair Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin slipped to 16th from 13th with 52,363 points. In the men’s singles, Leong Jun Hao is cur rently Malaysia’s top-ranked player, climbing two spots to 24th with 46,551 points while pro fessional shuttler Lee Zii Jia, sidelined by injury since March, fell two spots to 35th with 38,890 points. In the women’s singles category, national shuttler K. Letshanaa rose one place to 41st with 32,918 points, while professional player Goh Jin Wei dropped two places to 47th with 30,165 points. – Bernama/Agencies Top national pair rise to career-high ranking after stellar performances

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