KUALA LUMPUR: While Malaysia has been working hard to produce Olympic medallists, a Malaysian coach, Lee Wan Wah, is doing the same for Japan.
Wan Wah, a former men's doubles world No. 1 wih Choong Tan Fook, followed in the footsteps of compatriots Tan Kim Her (men's doubles) and Jeremy Gan (mixed doubles) who are with Japan's national A team.
Starting his stint as the men's junior coach in Tokyo in 2019, Wan Wah was promoted to coach Japan's national mixed doubles B team a year later.
And Wan Wah, 48, has been producing results as his charges, Hiroki Midorikawa-Natsu Saito won a bronze medal at the 2021 World Championships in Huelva, Spain.
After Yamashita-Shinoya and Hiroki Midorikawa-Natsu Saito gained promotion to Team A to train under Jeremy, the Nippon BA asked the Ipoh-born Wan Wah to coach Japan's men's doubles B team in April last year.
Under Wan Wah, current World No. 19 Kenya Mitsuhashi-Hiroki Okamura started showing progress and were promoted to Team A who are coached by Kim Her.
Wan Wah currently has three pairs - Kazuki Shibata-Noki Yamada (No. 63), Takumi Nomura-Yuichi Shimogami (No. 69) and Mahiro Kaneko-Shunya Ota (No. 166) - under him in Japan's men's doubles B team.
Wan Wah, who often keeps a low profile, however, aims to guide Japan's players to Olympic medals.
"The main goal of a coach is to help players win medals at the Olympics, and that has always been my personal goal," said Wan Wah, who is on a short holiday break in Malaysia.
"My biggest achievement so far is guiding Yamashita-Shinoya to winning a bronze at the World Championships. It's a boost to keep working on an Olympic mission.
"Japan's system is different from Malaysia's. They have A and B teams with a promotion and demotion practice annually.
"The players are based in their respective clubs and come in for one week to 10 days of centralised training in Tokyo in between world tour events and domestic competitions.
"I plan the training programme, monitor their progress while they're at the clubs and travel for tournaments.
"I report directly to (Park) Joo Bong and have learnt a lot from him that has made me a better coach."
When asked, Wan Wah was non-committal on a return to Malaysia in the near future. "My current contract runs until March next year and I want to focus on continuing my work in Japan," he said.
Wan Wah's next assignment is the Malaysian Super 100 Championships at the Juara Stadium on Oct 15-20 where his three pairs aim to capture titles.