Top-ranked S’pore shuttler Gu Juan quits

SINGAPORE — With only two weeks to the Uber Cup, one of badminton’s most important team competitions, Singapore’s preparations have been interrupted by the resignation of top national women’s shuttler Gu Juan.

Yesterday, the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) confirmed that world No 22 Gu, Singapore’s top women’s singles shuttler in the Badminton World Federation’s world rankings, had resigned on April 30, citing the inadequacy of the SBA’s training structure to bring her game to the next level as one of the main reasons for her decision.

It comes as the SBA announced the squads for the Thomas and Uber Cups (see box), which will be held at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in New Delhi from May 18 to 25.

Injuries and her desire to look after her aged parents were other reasons for Gu’s decision.

SBA chief executive officer Ronnie Lim said the national sports association had tried to talk her out of it, but eventually accepted her decision.

“We asked her to give the present coaching system a chance, but she was reluctant. She was also carrying injuries and had skipped several training sessions. Hence, we thought it was best to let her go,” said Lim, who believes the departure of Gu, who has been battling injury, will have “minimal” impact on the team.

It is understood that Gu, despite not being at 100 per cent, was in the running to be selected for the Uber Cup, and her decision to leave has surprised Singapore national coach Liu Qingdong.

“There was a possibility of her making a big breakthrough and doing well in future competitions, but she chose to resign,” he said.

Gu, who turns 24 on May 26, won the bronze medal at the 2007 World Junior Championships in Auckland, and posted runner-up finishes at last year’s Malaysian and Dutch Opens. She was also part of the Republic’s women’s team that won a silver medal at the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand, and also achieved a career-high ranking of 16th in 2012.

Two years ago, she represented Singapore at the London Olympics, where she lost to Taiwan’s Cheng Shao-Chieh in the last 16.

She initially left the SBA in 2008 to pursue her studies in Shanghai, but returned less than 16 months later as she missed the sport.

Singapore are in Group B of the Uber Cup alongside 2010 winners South Korea, Indonesia and Australia in the group stage, with the top two teams advancing to the next round.

Liu wants 2011 SEA Games champion Fu Mingtian to step up and play a bigger role.

“We have communicated with her to take up the additional role (and) play the third singles at the Uber Cup, and we will be preparing her over the next two weeks and monitor her progress and suitability,” he said.

In the Thomas Cup men’s competition, Singapore also face a tricky group stage with Thailand, Nigeria and 13-time champions Indonesia in Group A, with the top two from the group advancing to the quarter-finals.

This will be the first time that Singapore have qualified for the biennial Thomas and Uber Cups in the same year.

Singapore’s squads:

Thomas Cup: Derek Wong, Huang Chao, Terry Hee, Chayut Triyachart, Danny Bawa Chrisnanta, and Sean Lee.

Uber Cup: Chen Jia Yuan, Liang Xiao Yu, Fu Mingtian, Vanessa Neo, Tan Wei Han, Yao Lei and Shinta Mulia Sari