KUALA LUMPUR: It is such a whale of a time for Talia Ng.
The Canadian women’s singles shuttler may have trained in three countries before but none can top her experience in Malaysia.
Having trained in Thailand, China and Hong Kong previously, Talia, who began a month-long training programme here a fortnight ago, admitted that her first training experience at Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM), Bukit Kiara, as truly remarkable.
“The training vibes are really great and I like it a lot as everyone is so cheerful. The facilities and coaches are also very good here (at ABM).
“Apart from court training, I really like to train in the gymnasium as the coach has a lot of knowledge in sports science including how many exercises that you should do,” she said when met at ABM.
Unlike in Canada, Talia, who forked out her own money to train here, was mesmerised by the camaraderie and unity among the Malaysian shuttlers at ABM.
“In Canada, we don’t have a national training own centre as everyone trains independently at their own badminton club and we are not really close with the team. So, I really like how the Malaysian players train together, have fun all the time and help each other,” she said.
As badminton is an unpopular sport in her own backyard, the 21-year-old player, revealed that not many Canadians were familiar with their top shuttler, Michelle Li, ranked 15th in the world, despite her compatriot being well known among badminton lovers around the world.
Asked on the main purpose of training in Malaysia, the current world number 53 said she wanted to have an intensive training programme to help her gear up for the Thailand International Challenge 2023 from March 7 to 12 followed by a few European legs including the Polish Open 2023, Madrid Spain Masters 2023 and Orleans Masters 2023 in France.
In the meantime, the Toronto-born player hopes to break into the top 40 as well as setting a long term goal to play at the Olympic Games in the future.
The Ontario-based McMaster University graduate in life science degree programme also informed that she will be going for a sightseeing tour in Penang next after spending her last weekend in Melaka.
“More importantly, Malaysia has a lot of good food,” she said. – BERNAMA
