New Team Approach Holds Promise for Independent Players
For Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie, making the quarterfinals of the YONEX French Open 2021 beating Rodion Alimov and Alina Davletova was an important affirmation of the path they’re on as newly independent players.
· DEV SUKUMAR
“This win today means a lot because we haven’t been performing as well as we expected after the Asian Leg in January. A lot of things went up and down. Finding funding and making arrangements, and the travel restrictions that affected our training, so our performance was not stable,” said Shevon.
The mixed doubles duo are part of a group of around 16 doubles players – many of them former Malaysian national players who have teamed up to train together under coach Chin Ee Hui. Olympic silver medallists Chan Peng Soon, Goh Liu Ying, Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong were among those to conceptualise this approach when they started out as independent players in 2018. The team now includes the top three Malaysian mixed doubles pairs, two of whom -- Goh/Shevon and Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing -- turned independent this year.
After years of being used to the national team arranging everything, from training to flights to accommodation at overseas events, the players have had to quickly get up to speed on life outside their training bubble. The period since the onset of the pandemic has been particularly challenging, with restrictions on local and overseas travel, and the use of gyms and badminton halls.