Badminton

Soon Huat-Shevon get Candra's touch

Having taken a different approach to raise their game, mixed doubles pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie are targeting a strong finish at next month's German Open and All-England.

The independent duo decided to seek out Indonesia's former Olympic gold medallist Candra Wijaya to coach them as a change of scenery.

The world No 13, who previously trained under former national coach Chin Eei Hui, have been in Indonesia since January, working on their game.

And the pair are hoping that their sacrifice of being away from home for so long, will pay dividends at the German Open (March 8-13) and the All-England (March 16-20).

"We've been in Indonesia for the past month training under Candra," explained Shevon.

"It has been a tough period. The training here and also being away from home for such a long time.

"But after training hard and preparing to get back into tournaments for the past month, we are hoping to start afresh in March.

"We had a hectic schedule towards the end of the last year and some of our results were average.

"We hope to improve more on our consistency and achieve better results in the coming tournaments.

"And we would like to finish on the podium or two for the effort of making the long trip to Europe.

"But we are aware that the draw is pretty tough, and mixed doubles is becoming more unpredictable with more good pairs coming up," added Shevon.

The pair are seeded eighth for the German meet and line up against England's Callum Hemming-Jessica Pugh in the first round.

For the All-England, they are unseeded and meet Denmark's Mathias Thyrri-Amalie Magelund in the first round.

If they win, they are expected to meet top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand in the second round.

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