Sabahan named national team manager
Published on: Tuesday, May 09, 2023
By: GL Oh
“It was a tough and challenging task. Malaysia has never won the mixed team event since its inception in 1989. I hope the players will give their best to reach the semi-final stage as targeted,” Celestine said. - Credit: Badminton Association of Malaysia.
Kota Kinabalu: Sabahan Celestine George relishes the opportunity to manage the national team in the TotalEnergies BWF Sudirman Cup Finals 2023 scheduled to be held in Suzhou, China from May 14-21.The 46-year-old who is a council member of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has been named as team manager for the Malaysian squad in the eight-day competition.
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“I am very proud to be given the chance to manage the national team. It is a great honour and I would like to thank president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria for the trust given to me.
“It was a tough and challenging task. Malaysia has never won the mixed team event since its inception in 1989. I hope the players will give their best to reach the semi-final stage as targeted,” he said.
Malaysia has been drawn in Group C with Chinese Taipei, Thomas Cup winners India and Australia in this year’s competition.
Their best achievement in the biennial tournament is winning bronze in 2021 (Vantaa, Finland) and in 2009 (Guangzhou, China).
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Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) High Performance Director Dr Tim Jones had recently announced their 20-player squad with world number four Lee Zii Jia leading the challenge and he will feature in the singles with Ng Tze Yong, while the women’s singles players are Goh Jin Wei and K. Letshanaa.
The men’s doubles pairs are world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Teo Ee Yi-Ong Yew Sin while the women doubles are Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah and Go Pei Kee-Valeree Siow.
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There will be four mixed doubles pairs led by Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai, Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing, Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei and Hoo Pang Ron-Teoh Mei Xing.
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