Making the A-team is Eogene's dream

EOGENE Eon Ewe may only be 15, but he is already making heads turn in the national junior squad.

Last year, Eogene surprised everyone by reaching the boys' singles final of the National Under-18 Championships in Alor Star, and this year, even with the Covid-19 pandemic, he topped Group B in the recent National Junior Ranking Challenge.

As a result, the Perak-born has earned a chance to be promoted to Group A, when he takes to court tomorrow in the National Junior Ranking (Promotion and Relegation) event at the Juara Stadium in Bukit Kiara.

"To be honest, my body is a little tired from the earlier junior ranking challenge, but I am not giving up from trying to earn promotion into Group A this week.

"I will be playing against players who are older (bottom two players from Group A), and I may lose.

"However, I have been training hard to improve further. I wish to move up the ranks as soon as possible," said Eogene, who finished ahead of Dylan Ooi in the National Junior Ranking Challenge last month.

Both Eogene and Dylan will compete against the bottom two from Group A — V. Poopathi and Anson Cheong — to see who gets promoted and relegated.

According to the BA of Malaysia (BAM), the ranking system will allow these young players to have a sense of personal assessment and to fast track those with exceptional talent.

It is understood that later this month, the top two players from Group A (boys and girls' singles and doubles) will have a chance to secure their places in the national back-up squad.

As for Eogene, his top priority now is earning promotion into Group A.

"I wish to be stronger physically. That will help me move up faster. I also want to do well because this year has been really difficult for a lot of us.

"Because of Covid-19, we have not played in any major tournament this year We are also staying put here at the Academy Badminton Malaysia. Sometimes it gets really boring.

"The ranking tournaments offer us targets to look forward to.

"We need to overcome this and look forward to the future," added Eogene, who is already training with the national Under-18 squad under BAM development head Misbun Sidek.