Malaysia's BAM to Send Shuttlers to Train In China

KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 (Bernama) -- The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) will send its players to train at the Li Yongbo Badminton Academy in Dongguan, China, to improve the national squad’s performance.

BAM president Mohamad Norza Zakaria said the initiative was realised through the parent body's collaboration with new electronic brand FreeYond, in a one-year sponsorship agreement signed Wednesday.

"The most important aspect why we accepted the offer from Eddie Chai Woon Chet (director of FreeYond) is because he also has a good relationship with the Li Yongbo Academy. So he spoke to Li Yongbo about sending our players to the academy.

"This discussion with FreeYond had commenced before the Sudirman Cup and we discussed the terms and conditions of the sponsorship," he told reporters after the sponsorship signing ceremony at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil, here Wednesday.

He said BAM would be evaluating the list of men's and women's singles players to be sent to the academy in phases before expanding the programme to include national doubles players.

"We will involve players who will qualify for the Olympics and look at the players who need to be sent there (Li Yongbo Academy) including reserve players, especially for the singles event. As said before, I care about the development of our singles players," he said.

Earlier, the sponsorship agreement was signed by Mohamad Norza and the executive director of Fast Energy (as the exclusive distributor of FreeYond), Vincent Tan Wye Chuan.

-- BERNAMA