Zulfadli’s feat shows he can be an able replacement for Chong Wei

Three points were made clear when youngster Zulfadli Zulkifli accomplished the historic feat of becoming Malaysia’s first boy’s singles badminton champion at the Asian Junior Championships in Lucknow, India on Sunday.
Firstly, his breakthrough showed that there are talents in Malaysia to take over the mantle from world No. 1 singles shuttler Lee Chong Wei, who plans to slow down after the London Olympic Games next year.
Yesterday, the 18-year-old Zulfadli raised a glimmer of hope for a better future in the singles department when he beat India’s Verma Sameer 21-15, 21-17 to end Malaysia’s agonising 14-year wait for the elusive title.
He has put himself as one of the strong contenders to become the country’s first singles champion at the World Junior Championships, which will be held in Taiwan in October.
China’s current stars like Lin Dan, Chen Jin, Chen Long and South Korea’s Park Sung-hwan all went on to have successful senior careers after winning the Asian junior title and hopes are high for Zulfadli to follow suit.
With proper guidance and grooming Zulfadli can be Malaysia’s flag bearer in all major tournaments leading to the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil .
“This is a great start for me. I hope to achieve more good results. I still have a long way to go but I am determined to work hard in my mission to become the country’s top player” said Zulfadli.
Secondly, Zulfadli’s win is also seen as a big boost for independent shuttlers and clubs. Clubs and private badminton academies will now be more motivated to continue with their efforts to produce champions to complement the work done by the Bad­min­ton Association of Malaysia (BAM).
The lanky Zulfadli’s win is unique in a way because he did not come through the BAM’s centralised training system. In fact, he benefited mainly from his father Zulkifli Sidek’s personal coaching and also due to some short stints with state teams. He was also lucky that KL Rackets (KLRC) funded him for local and international tournaments.
His breakthrough certainly gives hope to those aspiring shuttlers who had failed to make the yearly selection into the Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS), where the BAM’s best juniors are housed.
Finally, Zulfadli’s achievement in India has in a way raised concern over the junior programme in BAM – especially in the singles department.
He has been successful when many other BAM shuttlers had failed. Over the last few years, three shuttlers – Mohd Arif Abdul Latif, Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin and Loh Wei Sheng froze in their respective final appearances and settled for the runner-up spots in the Asian junior meet.
The success of an outsider surely raises many questions on what has been happening inside BJSS.
Do they have the right coaches to groom the singles players? Are the right singles players selected into the BJSS? Are the international exposures enough for the juniors in BJSS to toughen them up mentally? What gets priority in BJSS – studies or sports?
Courtesy of The Star