KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 — Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said it is fine with him if Datuk Lee Chong Wei skips the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games next year.
Khairy said that he had informed the Badminton Association of Malaysia that priority should be given to the World Championship for Malaysian shuttlers who are ranked among the top in the world.
There is a clash in the dates for the two premier events, with the Sea Games to be held from August 19 to 30 and the World Championship in Glasgow from August 21-27.
“Chong Wei might not be participating in the Sea Games, I told the world number one that the World Championship would be better for him,” he told reporters here today.
Chong Wei is still chasing his first World Championship title after ending up bridesmaid in three finals: in Jakarta in 2015, Guangzhou 2013, and London 2011.
Chong Wei was also the runner-up at the 2014 edition in Copenhagen but the title was withdrawn after he tested positive for doping. Thereafter, he was handed an eight-month suspension by the Badminton World Federation.
He had also won a bronze in Anaheim in the US in 2005.
The Sea Games offers seven gold medals — two in the team events and five in individual categories.
Malaysia are the defending champions in the men’s singles and the women’s doubles.
The absence of Chong Wei at the last edition of the Sea Games in Singapore last year did not affect Malaysia’s chances of winning the gold medal in the men’s singles. Chong Wei Feng did the honours while the women’s doubles gold was won by Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei. — Bernama
