The Badminton Talent Development Programme (BTDP), a collaborative effort between the Malaysian Education Ministry (MOE) and Perodua, has reached the pinnacle of its second year with 14 young national champions. The National Finals, which took place at Arena Badminton Perak in Ipoh from October 17 – 20, saw 224 finalists from all over Malaysia fiercely compete in 11 categories over 4 days for national glory.

“Jointly launched by Perodua and MOE in February 2018, the BTDP is a 5-year nationwide human capital development programme that aims to find and cultivate future Malaysian badminton talent amongst primary schoolchildren, in the hope that they can play for our country one day,” said Perodua President and CEO, Dato’ Zainal Abidin Ahmad.

Additional categories
As in the first year, the 2019 programme kicked off in March with 140 coaches training 2,800 primary schoolchildren at 70 identified badminton development centres nationwide. However, where there were only 8 categories last year involving 9- to 11-year olds, this year introduced 12-year olds – made up of last year’s 11-year olds – in 3 additional categories: boys’ singles, girls’ singles and for the first time, mixed doubles. The student athletes progressed through competitions at centre and state/federal territory levels to get to the National Finals.

“The great thing about the BTDP is that it doesn’t just focus on the student athletes’ capabilities on court. During training, we also try to instil in them values such as respect, discipline, determination, sportsmanship, punctuality, humility and cleanliness of self as well as surroundings. Most of all, we encourage them to live a balanced lifestyle of sports, studies and family in equal measure. We believe it’s best to start young,” Dato’ Zainal said.

“Some of these children don’t come from well-to-do families and had never even touched a badminton racquet before this. As a proudly Malaysian, People First company, Perodua is very happy to be working with the MOE to potentially change the lives of these children,” he added.

“They have been given the chance to represent their schools, states and soon, our country – like we did last year, we hope to fly our young champions to Tokyo early next year to go up against their counterparts from Japan and Indonesia at the 3 Countries Junior Badminton Competition, hosted and organised by Daihatsu Motor Company of Japan.