KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — The national women’s singles players’ training is being intensified with the services of three male individual badminton players from Myanmar ahead of the 2024 Badminton Asia Team Championships (BATC) in Setia Alam, which will start on February 13.

Hein Htut, 18; Zaw Lin Htoo, 20; and Nyon Shaine Lin, 15; acted as sparring partners to further solidify the national team’s preparations.

National women’s singles player Siti Nurshuhaini Azman said that this training method has somewhat succeeded in helping to improve her playing style.

"I think it is fun to spar with players of the opposite gender; it provides an opportunity to learn new techniques and strategies that we didn’t encounter while training exclusively with our fellow female national players.

"From our observation, their playing style is somewhat similar to our opponents at BATC, and I hope it will help me and other Malaysian players,” she said after the national team training session at the Badminton Academy of Malaysia in Bukit Kiara here.

For the 2024 BATC championship, the national women’s team will be represented by Goh Jin Wei, K Letshanaa, and Wong Ling Ching in the individual category, while for the team event, the challenge will be shouldered by Pearly Tan-M Thinaah, Go Pei Kee-Low Yeen Yuan, and Mei Xing-Tan Zhing Yi.

The national squad, which finished third in the previous edition, has been drawn into Group Y alongside Thailand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

When asked about the national team’s preparations for the championship, Siti Nurshuhaini said that everything is progressing smoothly.

"The team’s hope, of course, is to improve our performance compared with the last edition,” she said. — Bernama