Wong Choong Hann

Wong Choong Hann
Personal information
Country  Malaysia
Born (1977-02-17) 17 February 1977
Kuala Lumpur
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Years active 1996 - 2012
Handedness Left
Event Men's singles
BWF profile
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Wong.

Wong Choong Hann (simplified Chinese: 黄综翰; traditional Chinese: 黃綜翰; pinyin: Huáng Zònghàn; born 17 February 1977 in Kuala Lumpur) is a former professional badminton player from Malaysia. He is the first Malaysian to win a medal in the men's singles event at the BWF World Championships.

Career

Wong Choong Hann's career began with the 1996 Malaysia Open. The first tournament he won was the 1997 Dutch Open. He represented Malaysia in 2002, where Malaysia emerged runners-up to Indonesia in the Thomas Cup championships.

In 2003, Wong Choong Hann reached the World Championships finals. In a thrilling three-game match between the veterans (both he and his opponent were above 24 years old then), he eventually lost out to the champion from China, Xia Xuanze.

Wong Choong Hann played badminton at the 2004 Summer Olympics in men's singles, defeating Przemysław Wacha of Poland in the first round. In the round of 16, Choong Hann was defeated by Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia.

The low point of his career occurred during the 2006 Thomas Cup where he injured himself by snapping an Achilles tendon while playing in a quarter final match against South Korea, he was required to rest for almost 6 months. He made a comeback to the sport in the Asian Games later in 2006 but was clearly far from his best form.

In the 2008 summer Olympics he defeated reigning Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat but once again failed to advance past the round of 16, losing to Hsieh Yu-Hsing of Taiwan.

He has set up a company "Pioneer Sdn Bhd" with former shuttlers Lee Wan Wah, Chan Chong Ming, and Chew Choon Eng to conduct badminton programs and hopefully produce world-class shuttlers for Malaysia.

In May 2010, Wong Choong Hann was called back to play for the Malaysian Thomas Cup squad.

In 2011 he played his last world championship, where he lost to Boonsak Ponsana in the second round.

Personal life

Wong Choong Hann married Leaw Pik Sim on 11 June 2005. They have a daughter, named Kyra Wong Xinyue, and a son, named Kayden Wong Zixuan. He currently resides in Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur. In September 2012, he co-founded LavieFlo International—the first preserved flower retailer in Malaysia.[1][2]

Achievements

Rank Event Date Venue
World Championships
2 Singles 2003 Birmingham, UK
Thomas Cup
2 Team 1998 Hong Kong
2 Team 2002 Guangzhou, CHN
Commonwealth Games
1 Singles 1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1 Team 1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1 Team 2006 Melbourne, Australia
2 Singles 2006 Melbourne, Australia
3 Singles 2002 Manchester, UK
World Tournaments
1 Singles 1997 Dutch Open
1 Singles 2002 China Open
1 Singles 2002 Dutch Open
1 Singles 2003 Chinese Taipei Open
1 Singles 2003 Copenhagen Masters
2 Singles 2003 China Open
2 Singles 2007 China Masters
2 Singles 2007 New Zealand Open
2 Singles 2009 Macau Open
2 Singles 2009 Chinese Taipei Open
2 Singles 2010 Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold
2 Singles 2011 Australian Open Grand Prix Gold

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/23/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.