The day has finally arrived for the junior team to leave for Lima, Peru for the World Junior Championships (WJC). The competition will begin from the 4th-15th November 2015 with the team event being played first, followed by the individual event.

The Malaysian team will be headed by Bukit Jalil Sport School (BJSS) project manager, Kwan Yoke Meng who will act as team manager in Peru. A total of fourteen players were selected to represent the country in this prestigious competition. They will also be accompanied by two coaches, Lim Pek Siah and Rony Agustinus and three medical officers from National Sports Institute (ISN).

As a preparation for the world junior meet, BAM with the assistance of the performance development team arranged a few programs to not only motivate the athletes but also to give them some guidelines on important matters. On Monday night, the anti-doping team were here to brief the players in terms of their medication intake and the consequences of failing to inform the coaches which could later result in more complications. After the anti-doping session, Morten gave an inspirational speech to motivate and encourage the players.

The next session took place two days ago and this time, the talk was regarding nutrition and psychology. The topic on nutrition is very important for the players to ensure they are in good health, moreover, as they will be travelling for the first time to South America where the food and environment can be very different compared to Europe and Asia.

In addition to the two sessions on Monday and Wednesday, the final one was held today where there was a friendly match between the WJC team and the ‘Challenger’ which comprises of the back-up and senior players. The purpose was to make sure the players compete as a team and also to give them a tournament environment. The end results were 9-3 siding the ‘Challenger’. The winners from the WJC team were M. Thinaah, Aaron Chia/ Soh Wooi Yik and the mixed doubles pair of Goh Sze Fei/ Teoh Mei Xing.

The team will depart at 11.40pm tonight and they are expected to reach Lima at 7pm tomorrow night. The players will then have three days to adapt to the place and at the same time, they will also attend training sessions and court testing.