Profile of Lee Zii Jia: Indonesian Coach Student Who Decided to Leave BAM All

KOMPAS.com – Malaysia’s best men’s singles Lee Zii Jia made a surprising decision in early 2022.

Lee Zii Jia decided to quit the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to become an independent professional player.

The news was known after Malaysian media, Astro Arena, through his personal Instagram upload, wrote that Malaysia’s number 1 men’s singles had officially left the national training camp.

Astro Arena also revealed that Lee would continue his career professionally.

Also read: Officially, Lee Zii Jia left BAM and became a professional player

“Lee Zii Jia has legally left BAM and will move professionally,” the media wrote.

The 23-year-old badminton player submitted his resignation letter from BAM on January 11, 2022.

Meanwhile, BAM has received a letter of resignation from Lee Zii Jia. The new BAM will make an official announcement.

However, BAM will present it at a press conference on Friday, January 21 regarding Lee Zii Jia’s withdrawal from the national training.

Then, what about Lee Zii Jia’s career?

Also read: The Story of F4 Badminton World: Taufik Hidayat, Lin Dan, Lee Chong Wei, and Peter Gade

After leaving national training, Lee Zii Jia will continue his career as a professional or independent player like Tommy Sugiarto in Indonesia.

Of course, being a non-training or professional player is not easy. Because professional athletes must find sponsors and arrange their own accommodation when they want to appear in a tournament.

Indonesian Coach Students

As the best Malaysian men’s singles player at the moment, Lee Zii Jia’s greatness cannot be separated from the cold hands of the coach from Indonesia, Hendrawan.

Hendrawan is a former Indonesian badminton player who has successfully won glory at the Olympics.

While still a badminton player, Hendrawan donated a silver medal for Indonesia at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The man who graduated from PB Djarum Kudus started his coaching career with BAM in 2009.

At that time, Hendrawan was still handling the neighboring country’s junior badminton team.

Over time, in 2015, Hendrawan was trusted to become Lee Chong Wei’s coach and succeeded in bringing the player back to life after the doping case.

Under Hendrawan’s tutelage, Lee Chong Wei managed to capture a number of achievements that brought him back to the world number 1 ranking.

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After coaching Chong Wei, Hendrawan also polished Lee Zii Jia. Since being trained by Hendrawan in August 2020, Lee Zii Jia’s progress has been quite good.

He won the 2019 Manila SEA Games gold medal and led his country to the final of the 2020 Asian Team Championships.

As for the individual tournament under BWF, Lee was able to win the 2021 All England title.

Now, the Kedah-born player is ranked 7th in the world.

Biodata Lee Zii Jia

Full name: Lee Zii Jia
Place and date of birth: Kedah, March 29, 1998
Citizenship: Malaysia
Height: 186 cm
Racket grip: Right
Sector: men’s singles
Current rating: 7
Achievement:

• 2021 All England Champion
• Runner up Hylo Open 2021
• Juara Chinese Taipe Open 2018
• Runner up Korea Masters 2018
• Polish International Champion 2017
• Dutch Junior Champion 2016
• Runner up India International Series 2016

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