MELAKA: National men’s doubles ace Aaron Chia has pledged to make amends for a poor French Open outing last week by bouncing back at the BWF World Tour Finals in Guangzhou, China in December.
The Melaka shuttler admitted that his mind was disturbed and he lost focus when he and his partner, Soh Wooi Yik, crashed out in the first round in Paris.
“I feel that perhaps that day (in Paris) I wasn’t so focused as I kept thinking of our Denmark Open semi-final defeat by Indonesians Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo the previous week.
“So, it affected my performance but, whatever it is, we will rise again at the year-end World Tour Finals,” he told reporters in Ayer Keroh here, Wednesday.
Earlier, Aaron received a RM70,000 incentive from the Melaka government at the ceremony to handover incentives for the World Badminton Championships, Commonwealth Games and Malaysia Games (Sukma) 2022 by state Youth and Sports Development and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Committee chairman VP Shanmugam.
The incentives were for his achievement in emerging as champions with Wooi Yik at the World Badminton Championships 2022 as well as for winning the mixed team gold and men’s doubles bronze at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games in August.
Aaron said he will give his best at the World Tour Finals in China in preparation for next year’s qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
He also expressed his gratitude to the Melaka government for the incentives given in appreciation for the efforts put in by the Melaka-born athletes.
At the event, the Melaka government also distributed RM115,300 to the athletes who helped the state bag 17 gold, 11 silver and 23 bronze medals at the Sukma in Kuala Lumpur in September.
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