After being crowned badminton's newest world champion, Loh Kean Yew can dream of Olympic glory next

WHEN Singapore's top-ranked badminton player Loh Kean Yew was crowned the sport's newest world champion on Sunday (Dec 19), the 24-year-old's stunning achievement drew a distinct parallel with the heroics of the late Singapore shuttler Wong Peng Soon .

When Loh executed "the clear" - the trademark lob to the baseline which Wong proffers with black-and-white images on Google - he left his World Badminton Federation Championships final opponent, India' Kidambi Srikkanth, confused and stranded at mid-court, gaining the final point he needed to etch his name in the history books as the sport's newest superstar.

After a frenetic 43 minutes during which he once trailed 9-3 in the first game, the unseeded Loh put on a masterful and gritty showing to win in straight sets.

The late Wong won the unofficial badminton world championships, the All-England event, in 1950 and repeated the feat in 1951, 1952 and 1955 during a period when there was no world individual tournament until 1977.

Those were the days of the illegal wood shot (the shuttlecock hitting the wooden frame), the Dunlop rackets, Bluebird shuttlecocks and a scoring system that allowed second serves and playing to 15 points to win a set.

Like Loh, who was born and raised in Penang, the Johor-born Wong moved to Singapore in the teens and was known for his excellent courtcraft and graceful footwork, with which he wore down his opponents and left them gasping.

And gasping was also how Loh left a spent Srikkanth at the historic Spanish city of Huelva, with a vastly-increased pace mixed with a repertoire of strokeplay, mixing the baseline lobs with crisp drop shots and powerful smashes. One rally even lasted 49 shots.

Wong won his first big title, the Singapore Open at 21 years of age in 1938. He went on to capture a slew of trophies after that, including the All-England, Malaysian Open, Indian Open, Denmark Open and Philippines Open.

He was the spearhead for Malaya's Thomas Cup triumph three times (1949, 1952 and 1955), playing up to the age of 37.

Like Wong, the 24-year-old Loh also picked up the game as a kid, but the latter's phenomenal rise only came about after he had spent a month in Dubai at Danish world No 1 Viktor Axelsen's training camp in September.

Much of his astonishing play can be attributed to his understanding from the Dubai camp that fitness and stamina are crucial factors for improved play, the transformation from ordinary to extraordinary within 4 months from the July Olympics to a series of recent tournament successes.

Loh's romance with badminton began when he was 4 years old, the gate outside his home in Penang was a net for his knockabouts.

At 13, he received a scholarship to study at the Singapore Sports School and he served his National Service (NS) here from 2016 to 2018.

With his incredible victory in Huelva, Loh has proven that NS need not be a stumbling block for athletes who believe in themselves and continue to aim high.

Of course, Wong did not have the benefits of modern technology and equipment, but he enjoyed running and sparring, mixed with his cycling from his home to some training sessions when he was with the Mayflower Badminton Party.

Once, when I visited him at his home with a colleague, Wong showed us a video of some of his games from which victories were garnered by mere stroke play, pushing his opponents from the baseline to net and vice versa with pure skill and dexterity.

Wong was a proponent for fitness and stamina and he always studied his opponents and exploited their weaknesses.

On Sunday, if Srikkanth - ranked 8 places ahead of Loh - had one takeaway from his defeat to the plucky Singaporean, it is the lesson that "no rally is won and no game is lost, until the shuttle is dead".

For Loh's returns and retrievals were stupendous, often indulging in overstretched reactions and gravity-defying leaps in order to find the "kill".

Loh and Srikkanth belong to a generation of players where there is no clear-cut world No 1, unlike in the days of Rudy Hartono, Han Jian, Liem Swie King, Morten Frost or Lin Dan.

Japan's former world No 1 Kento Momota is not the same player as he was before the injury suffered in a serious motor accident in Kuala Lumpur 2 years ago. Axelsen can blow hot or cold, as are the likes of Lee Zii Jia, Anders Antonsen and Jonatan Christie.

That said, the 24-year-old Loh has all the attributes to retain his crown of world champion if he continues to believe in himself. That should steel him into working even harder and realising his long-held dream of winning an Olympic gold medal.