The One Tournament That Eluded Kiera

Introduction

The Malaysian School Sports Council (MSSM) was established since 1958 under the Malaysian Ministry of Education to promote sports in schools through the organization of sports competitions and development programs. It oversee 24 sports at school level including badminton. The MSSM Level Tournament is only open to Malaysian students under the age of 18. It is organised in three stages :

Stage 1 : MSSD Daerah (Inter-School)

Stage 2 : MSSS Negeri (Inter-District)

Stage 3 : MSSM Kebangsaan (Inter-State)

This is one competition, Kiera could not get to MSSM stage 3 for three years in a row. Only the finalist (Champion & Runner-up) in each stage will qualify for the next higher stage, therefore the competition gets tougher as the stage progresses. This year, despite emerging Champions again for the MSSD Petaling Perdana district, having qualified for the MSSS, she suffered a first round defeat in the GSU15 category. Similarly in the GDU15 category, Kiera paired with Ho Wenjie only made it to the quarter finals in MSSS.

The prize for winning in the MSSM (Stage 3) is significant. In the past not only the top boy and girl in the U12 category will be selected for the Bukit Jalil Sports School (precursor to the National Junior squad. Now ABM) even the Singapore Sports School will poach them by offering full scholarship to study, train and play in Singapore. Those who excel in Education and Sports may be offered Singapore citizenship too. Such were the value of the top prize for MSSM.

In 2023 MSSS, at 13yo, Kiera made it to the semi-finals for both GSU15 and GDU15 categories which was close but not enough to qualify for MSSM.

In 2022 MSSS, at 12yo, she lost in the quarter finals in GSU12 but made it to the final in GDU12. However that year (post MCO) the Ministry of Education decided to exclude U12 doubles for MSSM presumably due to budget constraints. So there you go. This was one tournament that eluded her.

Over the many months of reflection, in my own post mortem as to why Kiera did not perform well in MSSS this year may be due to the following factors (although Kiera denied them) :

1) The week before MSSS, she received new Victor merchandize from Rexcool whom had sponsored Kiera for her badminton achievements. She may not be used to the new Victor racquet which was different from the usual Yonex racquets she has been using.

2) One week prior to the MSSS, the Petaling Perdana coaching team organised training sessions which was heavily weighted toward doubles. As the result of this, her lack of singles preparation may have been hampered by this factor.

3) The age category U15 may also be disadvantage for her having to compete with players a year senior to her in terms of strength and speed. Note the MSSS pool of players advancing to the later knockout stages were mostly SBA and Pjba players.

4) The coaching team (which comprises of school teachers) may be another factor but in my opinion this is not a significant factor for her poor performance.

Be that as it may, Kiera has another shot at the MSSM U15 category next year when she turn 15 years old. So lets see if she can break this jinx.