KUALA LUMPUR: “I want food. I love all Asian meals. First, it will be dim sum ... then Japanese food. But right now, I just want to have a good rest.”
Those were the first thoughts of 15-year-old Goh Jin Wei – Malaysia’s new badminton star – after she defeated compatriot Lee Ying Ying 21-15, 21-16 in 35 minutes to lift the girls’ singles crown at the World Junior Championships in Lima, Peru, on Sunday.
She’s talented. She’s humble. And she definitely has a big appetite!
She’s also now the second youngest world junior champion after Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon. The Thai was 14 when she won the 2009 edition in Alor Setar.
Penangite Jin Wei hopes that the 1-2 finish at the world juniors will help improve the image of Malaysia’s women’s singles shuttlers.
“Ying Ying and I know each other’s game well. It was not our best match, but I’m glad I won.
“This is not only a good start for Ying Ying and I, but the whole women’s singles team.
“I still can’t believe I’ve won my first world junior title,” said world No. 143 Jin Wei, who hails from the same place as men’s ace Lee Chong Wei – Bukit Mertajam.
She even trained under Chong Wei’s former coach Teh Peng Huat before moving to Kuala Lumpur last year.
The success of Jin Wei is not a big surprise.
She has always been a class above her peers since she began playing competitively at the age of nine. It was only over the last two years that she began to show drastic improvements.
She kept beating players ranked higher than her in the senior team. She won a bronze medal at the Singapore SEA Games and bagged her first senior Open title at the Belgium International Challenge. She followed it up by winning the Vietnam International Series.
Singapore were aware of her talent and had tried to “lure” her by offering her a place under their lucrative badminton programme in 2013. Fortunately for Malaysia, she turned them down.
“I want to do Malaysia proud, but I will take it one step at a time. I don’t want to put unnecessary pressure on myself,” said the Form Three student.
“I hope to be like Ratchanok and Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi. They won the world junior titles and are now doing well. But I also want to enjoy myself along the way.”
Apart from thanking her coaches, officials and team-mates, Jin Wei also accorded special mention to her father Goh Boon Huat, mother Loh Bee Sim and elder sister Goh Jin Mei “for their unwavering support”.
