KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 — The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) will be banking on women’s singles shuttler Goh Jin Wei to lead the national team at the 2018 BWF World Junior Championships in Markham, Ontario, Canada from November 5 to 18.

The 2015 world junior champion will also be out to capture the individual crown.

Besides Jin Wei, also included in the list are  2018 Malaysia Games (Sukma) men’s singles runner-up Aidil Sholeh Sadikin, 2018 Malaysian International Junior Open champions Pearly Tan-Toh Ee Wei, and  2017 Asian Junior bronze medallists — Ng Tze Yong, Eoon Qi Xuan, Chia Wei Jie.

National junior squad coach, Kwan Yoke Meng noted that Aidil Sholeh deserved to be in team because he has proven himself in the selection trials by winning all four matches and losing only once against leading men’s singles Ng Tze Yong.

"For me, this is the best crop of players under the age of 18 in the country. I hope that our team will be able to seal a medal in the championships and repeat last year’s feat of reaching the finals of the mixed team event.

"Not to put pressure on Jin Wei, but she has already established herself in the international senior circuit and I expect her to deliver the gold medal for us,” he said in a statement today.

In 2017, Malaysia went down 3-1 to China in the mixed team event held in Jakarta while Jin Wei crashed out in the quarter-finals of the individual competition. — Bernama