Former national trainee now holds court in disabled category

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IT IS a new experience for former national trainee Sydney Michael to start playing competitive badminton again.

Following a motorcycle accident in 2007, the 36-year-old badminton coach overcame a long challenging road to recovery before he regained his normal lifestyle.

For a start, Sydney displayed his character to stand on his feet before he attempted to walk again.

However, he lost the full mobility of his right leg that restricted his movement because he could no longer bend his right knee as a result of the mishap.

Recently, he returned to court along with other disabled shuttlers vying for honours at international tournaments.

Back in action: Sydney (right) teaming up with Hairol Fozi Saaba for a victorious debut in the men’s doubles of the standing below waist singles three category at the recent world Parabadminton meet.

Sydney admitted it was tough featuring in his first tournament at the Kuala Lumpur Open.

“Cikgu (a well respected and long- serving coach Moe Chin Kiat) encouraged me to go through the classification exercise and compete again. I struggled because I have not played a proper game for four years before making a comeback. It was awkward using my left leg as the dominant and lead leg to retrieve the shots at the front court. Initially, I did not hit very well either,” he added.

However, Sydney is making steady progress and adapting to the tricky conditions in his new shuttling adventure.

Besides being part of the victorious Malaysian side in the team event at the eighth Parabadminton World Championships in Guatemala at the end of last month, Sydney also collected a gold and bronze in individual events of the men’s standing below waist singles (lower body disabilities) three category.

In position: Madzlan settling for silver in the men’s wheelchair contest at the world Parabadminton meet.

Despite ending his campaign in the semi-finals of the singles, Sydney forged a winning partnership with Hairol Fozi Saaba in the doubles.

The 29-year-old Hairol Fozi went on to capture the men’s singles title.

“Although I was a competent, able shuttler previously, I am considered as a newcomer in Parabadminton. Most of the top contenders are running and moving very swiftly around the court. I am still finding it quite difficult to cover the court. It was a good start at the recent world Parabadminton meet. I am satisfied that I created two major upsets against the world number one from Guatemala and second ranked Taiwanese in group matches. Although I could match them in the earlier encounters, I could not sustain the high work rate. I just could not reproduce the similar form against the Taiwanese in the semi-finals,” said Sydney.

Malaysia fielded a team of six players under the care of coach Abdul Rani Jaafar and all of them contributed at least a medal to the medal tally.

From the recent fruitful world Parabadminton outing, they returned with a haul of seven gold, one silver and one bronze medals.

Among the other gold medallists were Cheah Liek Hou (men’s standing above waist singles — upper body disabilities — five section singles), Cheah Liek Hou-Suhaili Laiman (men’s standing above waist singles five section doubles) and Loi Lang Yean (men’s standing below waist two section singles, doubles and mixed doubles).

However, Lang Yean’s victories in both doubles only contributed half a medal each to Malaysia’s overall standings because he teamed up with a Japanese in the mixed doubles and a South Korean in the men’s doubles.

In addition, Madzlan Saibon also picked a silver in the men’s wheelchair contest.

For the recent sixth Asean Para Games in Indonesia, Sydney was part of the Malaysian team of 14 players including two women.