Ampang Jaya Badminton Club (AJBC) is looking at more than just the Purple League as the benchmark for their achievements.
The team emerged as runners up at the Junior Purple League 2017 after having won the Purple League Junior Champion Challenge the year before, had just organised the Badminton Championship 2018.
The Badminton Championship 2018 is an open tornament and where this year, it attracted more than 1,000 players.
“Every year, we looked at all available talents especially when we organize tournaments like these,” said AJBC’s Ho Chek Mong, whose team has been in existence since 2010.
“Through tournaments like the Badminton Championship, we have managed to attract players from all over the country. And for AJBC, it has allowed us to select and groom players where up to now, we have six players under the auspices of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM).”
The three players under the BAM back up squad are Lee Shun Mei, Goh Yi Xuan and Wong Kha Yan while players like Tai Jo Yi (Form Two) and Bryan Jeremy Goonting and Lim Yi Wei (Form One) are with the Sports Schools.
Chek Mong said that it has always been the philosophy of Ampang Jaya BC to look at nurturing the youth and allow them to grow and develop to be good professionals one day.
“AJBC’s vision emphasizes on grassroots development, through this tournament, we contribute 10% of the registration fee and organized a charity sale to raise funding for two schools in the Ampang vicinity,” added Chek Mong.
“The two beneficiary schools are SJKC ON PONG 2 and SJKC KAMPUNG BAHRU.
“And so far, I believe that we are on the right track where we hope that we can be catalyst to develop more talents. Lee Chong Wei, Chan Peng Soon, Goh Jin Wei all received their early exposure here (from open tournaments like this).”
After the completion of the Badminton Championship 2018 on the weekend, Yeoh Seng Zoe emerged as the most accomplished player when he won the Boys’ Singles as well as the Boys’ Doubles alongside Chen Jia Huo in the BD21 category.
The other winners were Tiew Yi Cheng (Boys Singles U10), Tan Shi Li (Boys Singles U13), Samuel Lee (Boys Singles U16), Yeoh Seng Zoe (Boys Singles U21), Ooi Yi Hern/Samuel Lee (Boys Doubles U15), Chew Tze Teng (Girls Singles U13), Ho Lo Ee (Girls Singles U16), Ghaida Nurul Ghaniyu (Girls Singles U21) and Tan Khim Lim/Tan Yang Wah (Mens Doubles Amateur).
