Lee Chong Wei clinched his first Asian title in 10 years after winning the Asian Badminton Championship last weekend.
More importantly, Chong Wei defeated the likes of Lin Dan and Chen Long en route to completing the triumph, which inevitably revived talks of him potentially winning Malaysia’s first ever Olympic gold medal, later this year.
But as far as Chong Wei is concerned, he doesn’t want to get carried away with his ABC triumph, claiming that it won’t have a direct influence on his performance in Rio.
“This is just an Asian Championship, which is very much different compared to the Olympics. Winning in Asia does not guarantee me a triumph in the Olympic Games,” the world number 2 told Utusan Malaysia.
“The Asian Championships is held annually while the Olympic Games is held once every four years. Now is the time for me to prepare myself physically and mentally because if I don’t succeed this time, I’ll have wait for another four years,” he explained.
“Right now, I know I’m improving, as depicted during my win against Lin Dan and Chen Long. But I still have to be physically stronger as some matches can go beyond an hour,” he added.
Other posts by Lekshman Subramaniam