Loh Kean Yew aims for historic Asiad men’s singles badminton medal amid rough year

SINGAPORE – In a tough season that has yet to yield a title on the Badminton World Federation World Tour, Singapore’s top badminton player Loh Kean Yew is banking on his experience to achieve a medal breakthrough at the Asian Games in Japan.

Singapore players have brought home just one badminton medal from the Asiad – a women’s team bronze from 2006 – and Loh is looking to end the drought at the Sept 19-Oct 4 edition in Aichi-Nagoya.

“Every athlete wants to be on the podium... I will give it my all and do my best to not leave any regrets,” said the 29-year-old at a press conference held at the KFF Badminton Arena on Sept 16 in respond to the medal target set by national singles assistant coach Kelvin Ho.

“The previous Asian Games was a bad one for me. Going into this one, I should be more experienced in handling the mental stress, so hopefully I’ll be able to do that well and play my best.”

At the last Asiad in 2023, Loh lost in his opening match, while teammates Jason Teh and Yeo Jia Min were eliminated in the round of 16 of the men and women’s singles competitions respectively.

The men’s team and most of the doubles pairings also fell at the first hurdle, with Nge Joo Jie and Johann Prajogo making the deepest run by reaching the men’s doubles quarter-finals.

Following a poor run of results in the build-up to the upcoming edition, only Loh, Yeo and men’s doubles duo Wesley Koh and Junsuke Kubo have qualified for their individual events which start from Sept 25 at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium.

A medal in Japan will mark an upswing in fortunes for Loh, after a roller-coaster season which saw him reach two semi-finals in January before making the final of the KFF Singapore Open in May.

An abdominal injury in June stalled his momentum and he failed to progress past the last 16 in the next five tournaments as his world ranking slipped to 13th.

But there were encouraging signs when he beat China’s top player, world No. 6 Shi Yuqi, in the first round of the China Masters in September.

He said: “From the injury until now, there hasn’t been much time to fully prepare and recover because of the world championships and a lot of the World Tour tournaments. So, I’ve been trying to build my physical strength, but with limited time, I’m just doing what I can.”

His women’s counterpart, Yeo has to deal with a more serious injury after hurting her knee during the Australian Open in June.

The 27-year-old has not played a competitive match since, as the former world No. 11 dropped to 45th, her lowest since January 2019.

Yeo, who took China’s eventual silver medallist Chen Yufei to a decider at the last Asiad in Hangzhou, said: “I’m not at 100 per cent, but in the upcoming days, I’m definitely trying to push it to prepare as best as I can.

“My goal after the last Olympics was to go for another one and do better. But I was scared that I cannot return to how I was before my injuries, which is why I made the decision to take my recovery slower to get stronger before I go for another one.”

For men’s doubles pair Koh and Kubo, both 24, they aim to sprint surprises in their debut Asiad outing after the experience of pairing with different partners in recent tournaments.

National doubles coach Paulus Firman had reshuffled the pack in July in a bid to find the strongest partnership to challenge for Los Angeles 2028 Olympic qualification which starts in May 2027.

As such, 42nd-ranked Koh and Kubo, who have played together since they were 16 and won two lower-tier international tournaments in 2024 and 2025, have been paired with Donovan Wee and Johann Prajogo respectively in recent events.

Koh said: “We are excited and want to gather as much experience as we can. The shuffling of partners is normal and doubles players like us have to adapt. I don’t think there is a problem as we are still communicating with each other and our coach to find the best strategy for every match.”

Kubo, who is born in Singapore to a local mother and Japanese father, added: “Adapting and learning the habits of another partner can help you grow as a doubles player.

“This will be our third major Games together, we are one of the lower-ranked pairs and we want to do our best and take down higher-ranked pairs.”

• Dive into all the sporting action and trends in Singapore with ST’s weekly newsletter.

David Lee is senior sports correspondent at The Straits Times, focusing on aquatics, badminton, basketball, cue sports, football and table tennis.