Chong Wei hopes Zii Jia will sign RTG agreement soon

KUALA LUMPUR - The Road To Gold (RTG) Committee will discuss at its next meeting the action to take if national badminton ace Lee Zii Jia fails to sign the Letter of Commitment (LOC) to join the RTG programme by Nov 14, according to an RTG Committee member.

Badminton legend Datuk Lee Chong Wei said any decision on the issue would only be taken at the meeting.

"As stated by RTG coordinator Datuk Stuart Ramalingam, Zii Jia has two weeks to sign the agreement. Maybe Zii Jia is busy with many overseas tournaments or needs to think about it.

"Stuart will follow up with Zii Jia. Hope he can settle the agreement within the given period. The subsequent decision will be made at the meeting; it cannot be decided by a single person,” he told reporters when asked about the issue here today.

Yesterday, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said Zii Jia, who is ranked 11th in the world, is the only athlete who has yet to sign the agreement and has been given 14 days to do so.

Chong Wei, who is also RTG badminton team manager, said the two mixed doubles pairs dropped from the programme - professionals Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie - can be reinstated if their performances improve.

He said they are still being given assistance like physiotherapy support services despite being dropped from the programme.

The two pairs are currently out of the qualification list for the Paris Olympics as Soon Huat-Shevon are 16th and Kian Meng-Pei Jing are 24th in world rankings. - BERNAMA