'FOUNDATION IS SET' AS ANDREW EXITS

Badminton technical director pleased with successes and changes during 3½-year stint

- David Lee

The Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) is on the hunt for a new technical director after Martin Andrew left his post on Aug 16 to move to New Zealand to be with his family and continue his coach education work with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

Having overseen a golden period of unprecedented success across 312 years, the Englishman told The Straits Times: "There has been so much unseen work to build relationships and improve one another, good memories and challenges we overcame as a team.

"So, of course there is an element of sadness in leaving a programme in its infancy and as it starts to build, but the foundation is set." Andrew's tenure in leading SBA's Having overseen a golden period performance pathway and coach education departments started in February 2021.

Since then, Singapore badminton has enjoyed a resurgence with Loh Kean Yew's historic world title in December 2021, followed by the Republic's first Commonwealth Games mixed doubles gold through Terry Hee and Jessica Tan in August 2022.

Loh also equalled Singapore badminton's best performance at the Olympics by reaching the Paris 2024 men's singles quarter-finals, where he lost to Denmark's eventual champion Viktor Axelsen on Aug 2.

A year earlier, he became the first Singaporean to reach a Badminton Asia Championships final.