Badminton News: Prevention is better than cure. Badminton Association Malaysia (BAM) President Tan Sri Norza Zakaria has suggested that Lee Zii Jia seek advice from the parties involved following the latter’s decision to take a break from the tournament, to reduce the risk of miss the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The 25-year-old independent has decided to take a break from competition for the time being after experiencing poor form and a crisis of confidence following his consistent early outings.
He made just two appearances in the semi-finals of the All England and Swiss Open in March and ended his other seven campaigns in the preliminary round.
Lee Zii Jia reached a career-high No. 2 at the start of the year, but a series of poor performances saw him drop to No. 1. 11 in the latest world rankings.
Zii Jia caused a stir when he announced his decision to make a pit stop after his latest loss to Indian Lakshya Sen in the first round of the Indonesia Open on Wednesday.
Norza respects Zii Jia’s decision but he hopes that the latter can recover from his failure and finish his unfinished job of fighting to qualify for the Olympics.
“For me, it’s up to Zii Jia to decide what he should do,” Norza said during the opening ceremony of the Gamuda 3×3 basketball Malaysia Tour at the Archive Discovery Park in Dengkil, Selangor, yesterday.
“However, as the president of BAM, I really hope that a player of Zii Jia’s quality will seek advice from the parties concerned regarding the right length of rest. Maybe he can take a short break and recharge his batteries. before returning to complete his unfinished business.”
“He is our nation’s best hope at the moment because Paris (Olympics) is a year away. If possible, we want two players to qualify for Paris, so Zii Jia and Ng Tze Yong are on our candidate list. “
“We, the BAM committee and RTG, are always ready to help him find ways to get back on track so that we can focus on qualifying for the Olympics. The RTG committee will meet tomorrow to discuss the latest developments.
It was a risky decision taken by Lee Zii Jia as the one-year qualifying period started last month and will end at the end of April next year.
He must defend his world ranking in the top 16 to qualify for next year’s Olympics.
In singles, a country can have two players in Paris if both are in the round of 16. Tze Yong is currently ranked 21st in the world
Article tags: Lee Zii Jia, Paris 2024 Olympics
