Beng Hong may be out of Games squad due to injury

PETALING JAYA: Shuttler Kuan Beng Hong (pic) is nursing a hamstring injury and may have to give up his place in the team for the Laos SEA Games.

Beng Hong sustained the injury on the left leg during training earlier this month and he had to skip the Super Series Open tournaments in Hong Kong and China.

National singles chief coach Rashid Sidek has put Chong Wei Feng on standby for SEA Games duty if Beng Hong fails to last the pace in training.

Last week, Wei Feng won his first international Open title at the Malaysia International Challenge in Ipoh.

“We will see how is his condition when he returns to training later this week,” said Rashid.

“Wei Feng will be the replacement if Beng Hong cannot make the trip to Vientiane for the Games. Changes to the team can be made for medical reasons during the team managers’ meeting.”

Besides Beng Hong, the other men’s singles players named in the team for the SEA Games are Lee Chong Wei, Mohd Hafiz Hashim and Liew Daren. And the two players named for the individual competition are Chong Wei and Hafiz.

The Malaysian badminton squad will leave for Laos on Dec 8. Competitions begin with the team event from Dec 10 and the individual events will be held from Dec 14-17.

Malaysia are the top seeds ahead of defending champions Indonesia and they have a bye into the semi-finals against third seeds Thailand. STAR

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