Singapore Badminton Association seeking new technical director following Martin Andrew’s exit

SINGAPORE – The Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) is on the hunt for a new technical director after Martin Andrew left his post on Aug 16 to move to New Zealand to be with his family and continue his coach education work with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

Having overseen a golden period of unprecedented success across 3½ years, the Englishman told The Straits Times: “There has been so much unseen work to build relationships and improve one another, good memories and challenges we overcame as a team. 

“So, of course there is an element of sadness in leaving a programme in its infancy and as it starts to build, but the foundation is set.”

Andrew’s tenure in leading SBA’s performance pathway and coach education departments started in February 2021.

Since then, Singapore badminton has enjoyed a resurgence with

Loh Kean Yew’s historic world title

in December 2021, followed by the Republic’s

first Commonwealth Games mixed doubles gold

through Terry Hee and Jessica Tan in August 2022.

Loh also equalled Singapore badminton’s best performance at the Olympics by

reaching the Paris 2024 men’s singles quarter-finals,

where he lost to Denmark’s eventual champion Viktor Axelsen on Aug 2.

A year earlier, he became the first Singaporean to reach a Badminton Asia Championships final.

On the BWF World Tour, Loh won two titles from six final appearances, while women’s singles player Yeo Jia Min became

the first Singaporean to qualify

for the prestigious season-ending World Tour Finals in 2021. Hee and Tan also won two titles from five finals.

Andrew, 55, said: “After I conducted a review of the performance side of things, we looked into a gradual change of the culture within the senior training – altering it to create a more motivational environment for the players to achieve higher level of results.”

Amid the “many internal and external changes”, he felt the SBA’s podium programme, which he helped put in place in early 2022, has been a game-changer to better support its athletes’ competition requirements.

The six-tier programme helps 46 national athletes and more junior players with their overseas competition expenses – which can range between $2,000 and $5,000 for a two-week event.

There are currently seven tier-one athletes – those who have progressed to the quarter-finals of Super 500 tournaments on the World Tour – who are fully funded by the SBA.

Under the programme, 11 co-funded athletes from tiers two to four can be fully funded for more tournaments, depending on their performance trajectory and coaches’ assessments. Meanwhile, 28 self-funded athletes from tiers five and six may also be considered for co-funding.

Andrew highlighted the

Thomas Cup qualification in 2022

by the men’s team for only the third time, after 1986 and 2014, saying: “There are the obvious players who achieved strong results but if we look at the rest of the national team, the improvement is clear and stronger results were seen.

“This continues now but people have to understand how difficult it is to move up levels in the world of professional badminton.”

National singles coach Kelvin Ho feels Singapore badminton has benefited from Andrew’s stint.

He said: “Martin is not afraid to challenge the status quo and do things differently for what he believes is best for the players and the big picture.

“This kind of boldness is essential for a technical director who wants a change to help build the high performance aspect of the sport here.”

Despite leaving on a high, Andrew hopes Singapore badminton can continue to find ways, such as through the SBA’s new junior performance programme that was launched in January, to improve and build on the recent slew of positive results, despite limited resources compared to the sport’s powerhouses.

He is encouraged by the

recent updates to the Sport Excellence Scholarship

and would like to see more support for athletes during their studies and national service to allow them to focus on badminton as a career, as well as coaching development to build a stronger ecosystem.

SBA chief executive officer Alan Ow commended Andrew for his “unwavering dedication to high-performance training”, and thanked him for shaping the organisation’s long-term performance strategies and establishing a strong foundation for sustained success.

Ow added: “His commitment to enhancing both player and coach education and cultivating a culture of continuous learning has been invaluable to the association. The SBA recognises the lasting impact of his knowledge sharing and commitment to excellence within the badminton community.”