Thursday, May 6, 2010

Badminton News: Mew Choo gets down to serious business after high fever

WONG Mew Choo struggled for breath and was panting away at times.
But if her determination is anything to go by, Malaysia can certainly count on her to rally the team together to beat the odds in the Uber Cup Finals.
Barely hours after coming down with high fever, Mew Choo surprisingly turned up on court to train with the rest of the team at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday. To her relief, the fever and flu scare turned out to be nothing much to worry about.

Getting a rub down: A masseur attending to Wong Mew Choo after the training session at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil Wednesday.
“I was a bit worried as I thought I was showing symptoms of H1N1 after I came down with high fever last night (Tuesday),” she said.
“I do not have high fever any more and I asked the National Sports Institute (NSI) director general, Datuk Dr Ramlan Aziz, for permission to join training.
“I still feel a bit weak and dizzy at times but I do not want to let my team-mates down. I have missed one day of training already and I just hope I recover my full strength by the time the tournament begins.”
As the first singles player, Mew Choo, who turned 27 on May 1, definitely has to win all her matches if Malaysia are to harbour hopes of making a strong impression in the Finals.
Unlike the men’s team, the women’s Uber Cup squad are not expected to contend for the title.
But there is hope on Malaysia equalling their best-ever achievements – quarter-final appearances in the last two campaigns. At the 2008 Finals in Jakarta, they were beaten 1-3 by Indonesia. Malaysia were also quarter-finalists in the 2004 edition, also in Jakarta.
“Although we have two replacement singles players in the team, I hope we still can do well. We will feel the absence of Julia (Wong) and Lydia (Cheah) but we can count on our doubles pairs who have improved a lot,” said Mew Choo.
Julia and Lydia, who came down with knee injuries, have been replaced by Sannatasah Saniru and Sonia Cheah. The others in the squad are Tee Jing Yi, Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty, Woon Khe Wei-Vivian Hoo and Goh Liu Ying-Ng Hui Lin.
Malaysia open their campaign in the group stages against the United States on Monday and meet title holders China the following day.

Taken from: http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2010/5/6/sports/6197965&sec=sports

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