AMBITIOUS DRIVE FOR GLORY

SBA seeks separate top-notch singles coaches for men and women's players

- Kimberly Kwek

In a bid for medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) is on the hunt for coaches to guide its top stars to further heights.

Casting its net wide, the association has been in touch with coaches who have produced champions on the international level and have taken charge of players who are ranked in the world's top 10, said SBA chief executive Alan Ow in an interview with The Straits Times on Oct 21.

The 43-year-old, who said they are not "dead set" on the candidates being foreigners, added that the plan is to get separate coaches for both their men and women's singles players.

He added: "This goes to show the level of ambition that SBA has because we've never done that before. But we want to give them (the players) a very good platform where we can have certain coaches who come in with a different view, training style that can push them to a different level."

The search for new national singles coaches comes on the back of an overhaul in SBA's coaching structure, which includes having a new technical director and with current national singles coach Kelvin Ho taking over from Taufiq Hidayat as coach of the national training squad (NTS) in early 2025.