KUALA LUMPUR: Playing in the competitive arena for the first time since emerging Paralympic champion last September, Cheah Liek Hou does not place high hopes on the 2022 Brazil Para Badminton International from April 19-24.
The 34-year-old, who will be leaving for Sao Paulo tonight, said having not played for a long time, he was also worried that his performance would be affected following his Covid-19 infection in February.
“After more than seven months of not playing competitively, I want to see the level of my performance. My confidence is not affected because I am more experienced than other athletes. I’m only worried about injury and I don’t want to get (infected) with Covid-19 there.
“I am post-Covid. If the lungs are affected, my performance will also be affected, I don’t know yet. I will see how I fare in this tournament before discussing with the coach (Datuk Rashid Sidek) about the more important tournaments after that,” he told Bernama.
Liek Hou emerged as the first badminton gold medalist at the Paralympics when he defeated Dheva Anrimusthi of Indonesia 21–17, 21–15 in the SU5 men's singles final when the sport was contested for the first time in the 2020 Tokyo edition, last September.
Liek Hou, who is also a six-time para world champion (for singles), is understood to have spent about RM15,000 on his own to participate in the tournament in Brazil, with airfares alone costing RM7,000.
Meanwhile, Liek Hou said his main focus for this year was the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China starting Oct 9-15 and the Para World Championships in Tokyo, Japan starting Nov 1-6.
“Since the organisation of the ASEAN Para Games in Solo, Indonesia is still uncertain and badminton is not contested in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, these two tournaments are my priority this year,“ he explained.-Bernama
