PETALING JAYA: Lee Chong Wei is not the one to blame for failing to deliver Malaysia a gold medal at the Rio Olympics, according to a former national legend.
Misbun Sidek, who was a former national badminton coach, lays the blame on the country’s lack of a developed and complete training system, China Press reported.
“That is the reason why Malaysia is still unable to produce athletes that can deliver a gold medal.
“Eight years ago, I voiced out the problems of the country’s outdated training system, but I was ignored,” Misbun was quoted as saying by China Press.
Another major issue holding back the nation’s top athletes in the sport was funding, which was in abundance in China when it came to coaching their top badminton players, he said.
“I was invited by China’s badminton head coach, Li Yongbo to visit their training centre and I was impressed by the size and sophistication of the centre.”
Misbun, who used to coach Chong Wei for a decade, added that Lin Dan has a seven-member team who trained him in all aspects, including focus, psychological, physical fitness and diet.
“However, Malaysia was left behind in these aspects as the financial allocation for such trainers is not that high.
"So a group of people who specialise in such areas would have to take care of athletes in other sports aside from badminton.
“That is why China already has a successor for Lin Dan, that is Chen Long, while Malaysia still has no candidate to take over from Chong Wei,” Misbun said.
“When Chong Wei battled against Chen Long, he had (the day before) spent most of his physical strength (facing Lin Dan).”
Misbun also claimed that there was no one giving our World Number 1 pointers on how to learn from his past mistakes, or ways to secure the top spot.
Chong Wei won the silver medal, his third in the Olympics, after he was defeated by Chen Long 21-18, 21-18 last Saturday.
He had defeated perennial rival Lin Dan in the semifinal earlier.
Chong Wei took three sets to defeat Lin Dan, with the rubber set going to the wire and ending in a 22-20 win for the Malaysian.
Malaysia ended its 2016 Rio Olympics mission with four silver medals and a bronze.
Three of the silvers were from badminton. -FMT
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