Malaysia’s national doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky has defended the selection decisions that came under scrutiny after the country missed its badminton medal target at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Malaysia returned with one bronze medal, won by women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah. The result was below Mainaky’s target of at least one silver and one bronze, prompting criticism from some supporters and calls for him to leave his post.
Mainaky said supporters were entitled to express that view, while maintaining that he would continue to fulfil his responsibilities. He also accepted that there could be validity in criticism surrounding choices made for a major event, but said the coaching staff had not made those decisions casually.
Target miss puts coaching choices in focus
Tan and Thinaah supplied Malaysia’s only badminton medal, taking bronze in the women’s doubles. According to The Star, they became Malaysia’s first women’s doubles pair to win an Asian Games medal since Vivian Hoo and Woon Khe Wei did so at Incheon in 2014.
That isolated return gave added weight to debate over the men’s doubles line-up. Mainaky and men’s doubles head coach Herry Iman Pierngadi selected Aaron Chia to play with Tee Kai Wun, rather than retaining Chia’s established partnership with Soh Wooi Yik.
The Aaron-Kai Wun combination was eliminated in the individual second round by Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae, identified by The Star as the world No. 1 pair. They did win one rubber when Malaysia lost 3-2 to Indonesia in the team quarter-final, but that contribution did not prevent the defeat.
Questions consequently centred on whether Chia should have remained alongside Wooi Yik. Chia and Wooi Yik had won bronze at the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2022, a result which provided a clear reference point for those challenging the altered combination.
The results left the selection open to contrasting readings. Aaron and Kai Wun contributed a point in the team event, but their individual campaign ended in the second round, while Malaysia’s overall return remained one bronze medal. It explains why the decision became a focal point after the team fell below its stated objective.
Mainaky cites form across the season
Mainaky said the coaching group had assessed players’ form from the beginning of 2026 until immediately before the Games. He said Aaron and Wooi Yik had started the year well but that their performances had gradually declined, and said Kai Wun and Man Wei Chong had also experienced a drop in form.
In contrast, he said Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin Rumsani had been improving. Mainaky said those contrasting trends required the staff to choose what they considered the best available option, rather than make changes simply for their own sake.
He acknowledged that observers could point to Aaron and Wooi Yik showing their best form at the World Championships, including an encouraging display by Wooi Yik. However, Mainaky said the pair’s results in several tournaments before that event had not been encouraging.
The director’s explanation places the disputed selection within a longer assessment of results rather than a single-event judgement. It does not remove the significance of Malaysia falling short of the stated medal objective, but it makes clear that Mainaky regards the pairings as a performance-based decision.
He also described Aaron-Wooi Yik and Kai Wun-Wei Chong as top-level players and said the coaching staff did not want defeats to become normalised. Mainaky said that, after players had been split and subsequently reunited with their regular partners, they produced good results.
Malaysia’s lone bronze therefore remains the immediate measure of an Asian Games campaign that did not meet its declared target. Mainaky’s response set the medal shortfall alongside the coaches’ stated assessment of form before the tournament.