KUALA LUMPUR – As hard as it may be, Malaysia’s professional men’s singles shuttler, Lee Zii Jia (picture), said he respected the decision made by former assistant coach, Liew Daren, to leave Team LZJ.

Nevertheless, Zii Jia said he believed that the presence of his four sparring partners, including two former national shuttlers, Lim Chong King and Lee Shun Yang, could fill the void left by Daren.

“The sparring sessions remain the same. We recently added Chong King and Shun Yang to help me,” he said after being shown another early exit after losing 21-16, 19-21, 15-21 to China’s Lu Guang Zu in the first round of the 2024 Malaysia Open badminton championships at the Axiata Arena yesterday.

World number 11 Zii Jia also said that his coach, Wong Tat Meng, saw the presence of Chong King and Shun Yang as beneficial for his training sessions.

In a statement late last month, Team LZJ confirmed that Daren will be parting ways with Lee Zii Jia, after almost two years serving as the world’s number eleventh player assistant coach.

The 36-year-old Daren was once ranked 10th in the world and was part of the victorious team at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and a French Open

champion in Oct 2012 after beating Viktor Axelsen from Denmark, besides winning the bronze medal at the 2018 World Championship in Nanjing, China. – BERNAMA