Singapore badminton overhauls coaching staff after ‘poor’ performance in 2013

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Liu Qingdong

In football, it is not uncommon for coaches to be fired within months, sometimes weeks, of failure.

But in badminton? Not often heard of.

Yet it is the very course of action taken by the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA), on the back of what president Lee Yi Shyan acknowledged as a year of “faring poorly” at tournaments like the Li-Ning Singapore Open and the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

The association has parted ways with singles coach Luan Ching and doubles trainer Yoo Yong Sung, both of whose contracts were due to run till the end of the year.

SBA officials confirmed that China native Luan ended his four-year tenure by consensual agreement while Yoo of South Korea resigned from a post he had held for only a year.

The man tasked to raise the standard of the team is Liu Qingdong, who will occupy a newly-formed, all-encompassing role as chief coach overseeing singles and doubles players in both the national team and its feeder, the National Intermediate Squad (NIS).

Assisting the 44-year-old in coaching duties are his fellow China-born, naturalised Singaporeans Liu Fan (singles), Jiang Yanmei (doubles) and Ding Chao (NIS).

Liu, formerly the coach of the NIS, has already responded to his promotion by declaring to the media his philosophy of settling for nothing but the very best.

“Every competition, I tell my players: you are going out there to get gold,” he said in Mandarin. “Otherwise, don’t bother.”

The ex-China national youth team captain has his work cut out for him, judging by the recent run of sub-par performances by Singapore’s shuttlers.

They went from five medals at the 2011 SEA Games to just one at the 2013 Games in December. Earlier in the year, none of 23 Singaporean entries could make it to the quarter-finals of the marquee Singapore Open despite being cheered on by a 30,000-strong home crowd at the Indoor Stadium.

Public outrage over the dismal showing led to SBA assembling a task force in July to undertake a six-month internal review.