Friday October 7, 2011
Yong-sung roped in to help Koo and Tan’s bid for Olympic gold
By RAJES PAUL
KUALA LUMPUR: At first, it was men doubles legend Park Joo-bong. Now, Malaysia have hired another former Korean star – Yoo Yong-sung – to beef up Malaysia’s men doubles department – as a coach.
Yesterday, Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Datuk Seri Nadzmi Mohd Salleh confirmed that they have lured Yong-sung to Malaysia to add the Korean factor in the men’s doubles training programme.
Yong-sung will be the second Korean under BAM’s flagship after the appointment of the more famous Olympic gold medallist Joo-bong, who had a stint with Malaysia from 1999 to 2002 as the chief coach.
The 37-year-old Yong-sung may not be as successful as Joo-bong but he had won the silver medal twice at the Olympic Games with Lee Dong-soo in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004).
He also won the silver medal at the 1999 World Championships in Copehagen and hold the distinction of winning three gold medals in three different events in the Asian Games – the men’s doubles, mixed doubles and team.
He had coached the national Korean team for a short while since he retired after the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
With the BAM’s decision yesterday, Yong-sung will be the latest edition to the coaching staff under the guidance of doubles chief coach Tan Kim Her. The others are Pang Cheh Chang, Jeremy Gan and Indonesian Rexy Mainaky.
Kim Her had coached the Korean national team from 2005-2008 and will not face any problems working with Yong-sung.
The Korean’s immediate task is to assist Cheh Chang to mould top shuttlers Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong into gold medal winners at the London Olympic Games next year.
On a long term plan, he will be given the task to whip up the back-up shuttlers to turn them into world beaters. Nadzmi hopes that the presence of Yong-sung would help the Malaysian shuttlers overcome the Korean hurdles in major events.
Kien Keat-Boon Heong, for instance, have never beaten Ko Sung-hyun-Yoo Yeon-seong in five meetings while the other Korean pairs are turning out to be major stumbling blocks for our players.
Nadzmi said that the status of the men’s doubles coaches were discussed during the BAM-National Sports Council (NSC) joint working committee at Bukit Jalil yesterday.
“We wanted the Korean factor in our training. We realise that our doubles players find the Koreans a real problem. It will be fantastic to have this Korean coach to give us the extra edge and the insight of the Korean way of training,” said Nadzmi.
”We hope that he will be able to give Koo and Tan some extra input in their preparation for the Olympic Games. We also want to use him to train our back-up players
“We have not really finalised all the details. We have the blessing of the NSC and for now, we will monitor his performances. We will decide the details of his contract later,” he added.
The Korean will be under probation for a start and he is expected to begin his work soon.
http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2011/10/7/sports/9650842&sec=sports