Ehime Prefecture, located in Japan’s western region of Shikoku, entered into an MOU to provide the national badminton team of Malaysia with a training camp site for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. This agreement for sports exchange has brought the national junior and senior Malaysian badminton teams to Ehime for their training.

Photo1: Welcome reception

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Photo2: Friendly matches with Japanese corporate teams

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Photo3: Exchange activities with residents of Tobe Town

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Photo4: Dogo Onsen hot spa resort

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There have been 3 training camps up till now, and during their training camp in December, 5 coaches and 20 athletes, including world-class player Lee Zii Jia, came to train for 8 days from December 22 to 29, 2019. In order to ensure the athletes would have good results from their training, the Ehime prefectural government opened up the Ehime Prefecture Budokan hall and other training facilities to the athletes and provided the best support possible towards their practices.

During the training camp, a friendly match was held between the Malaysian athletes and members from Japan’s corporate teams. World-class matches took place between the athletes awed spectators, and it was an especially memorable experience for high school badminton fans watching.

In between their training sessions, the Malaysian athletes participated in exchange events with local citizens and middle schoolers of Ehime. They had the chance to partake in “mochi (rice cake) pounding” activity, ate Ehime’s "imotaki" (taro hotpot) and visited cultural sites such as the oldest hot spring in Japan, Matsuyama’s Dogo Onsen resort.

The Malaysian athletes and coaches expressed words of thanks for the hospitality and training environment provided to them by the people of Ehime. Before the Tokyo Olympics, the Malaysian athletes will visit Ehime once more for final preparations. Ehime Prefecture hopes to help the Malaysian athletes to the best of its ability so that they may have great results at the Olympics.

Source: Ehime Prefecture