Rio Olympics silver medal winners Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying have quit the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) after submitting their quit letters on Nov 29.
The national badminton body in a statement released on Sunday said the duo’s resignation takes effect from Jan 1 2019 and the pair played their last international tournament as national players in the season-ending HSBC BWF World Tour Finals which ended in Guangzhou, China on Sunday.
The former world No 3 failed to reach the knockout stage from Group B after winning only one of their three matches.
The Malaysians lost to eventual champions Wang Yilyu-Huang Dongping 22-20, 21-13 in their first match but won their second match against Indonesia’s Hafiz Faizal-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja 21-14, 21-12.
In their final group match Peng Soon-Liu Ying fell to a 21-9, 21-18 defeat to Japan’s All England champions Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino and failed to reach the knockout stage.
BAM wished the Peng Soon-Liu Ying all the best in their futures undertaking and also “sincere thanks and appreciation for the development and growth of mixed doubles event in Malaysia.
For the record Peng Soon-Liu Ying wrote Malaysian badminton history as the first mixed doubles pair to win an Olympic event in the event.
The pair is expected to go professional in their bid to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. RIZAL ABDULLAH
