National shuttler Liew Daren has officially left the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) after twelve years.
Daren sent in his resignation two weeks ago as he decided to end his relations with the association after struggling with injuries and also to deliver consistency in his game play for the past two years.
“BAM has accepted my resignation and it will be come of use after the Malaysia Masters GP Gold in Penang next week. This is the best decision for myself,” said Daren as quoted from Berita Harian.
“However, I still don’t want to retire from the badminton industry and I will continue my career as a professional player.”
The 2012 French Open champion claimed that this is the best time to leave as young potential players are slowly emerging in the national squad.
“I think this is the right time for me to go. My performance has not been very good lately and lost of junior players are showing improvement,” he told Utusan.
“After discussing with the coaches, they advised me to make my own decision.”
“I have been a part of BAM since I was 16. I’ve gone through a lot. Winning the 2012 French Open was one of the greatest memories of my career.”
Despite the action, the 28 year-old will be leaving with one regret as he failed to lead the nation to triumph during the 2014 Thomas Cup, where he was ousted by Japan’s Takuma Ueda in the finals, thus bringing Malaysia to a 2-3 defeat to hand Japan the ultimate title.
“The one thing that I can never forget till this day is our defeat in the Thomas Cup finals in India two years ago.”
Ranked no.102 in the world, Daren will also be missing out on the Badminton Asia Team Championship in Hyderabad next month.
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