Following news about our reviewed, revised and revitalised performance programme and its overt emphasis on a coach-led approach, we are delighted to welcome another hugely successful former player to Badminton England.
Koo Kien Keat has joined our elite performance programme as a Guest Coach and will work closely with all our athletes over the next four weeks to help improve their individual games.
Former Malaysian doubles star, Koo is a former world no.1 and an All England winner!
Back in 2006, Koo first paired with left-hander Tan Boon Heong and together they won gold at the Asian Games in Doha as an unseeded pair – becoming the youngest ever men’s doubles pair to win an Asian Games gold medal!
The following year, the duo won the men’s doubles at the YONEX All England Open – climbing to the top of the world rankings with a famous win over Chinese pair Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng. They returned to the Final in 2011, only to narrowly miss out on a second All England title after a close-fought defeat to Danish pair Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen.
Already a Commonwealth gold medalist from his men’s doubles triumph in Melbourne, Koo won double gold in Delhi in 2010 – edging out his fellow Badminton England coach Nathan Robertson in both the Mixed Doubles and Men’s Doubles gold medal matches! Now he brings all that pedigree to the court as a coach.
The arrival of Koo Kien Keat comes off the back of the appointment of Christinna Pedersen as Performance Coach – the former Danish doubles icon, also a former world number one and YONEX All England Open winner, is courtside at the National Badminton Centre for one four-day week every month to provide specialist coaching expertise to the programme.
And as part of our new structure, Badminton England are in the process of recruiting for six new roles integral to the success of our new performance programme vision:
- Head Coach (Senior)
- Head Coach (Junior)
- Pathway Coach (Para)
- Programme Manager (Senior)
- Singles Coach (Senior)
- Doubles Coach (Senior)
We’d like to formally welcome Koo Kien Keat to Badminton England and look forward to seeing him work in close collaboration with Nathan Robertson and all our athletes throughout March.
