Tan Boon Heong

Tan Boon Heong (; born September 18, 1987 in Alor Setar, Kedah) is a professional badminton player representing Malaysia in the men's doubles event. He and his current doubles partner—Koo Kien Keat—are ranked 3rd in men's doubles in the world.

Career

He was previously paired with Hoon Thien How, with whom he won the World Junior Championships in 2004 and a silver medal at the 2006 Asian Badminton Championships.

Asian success

Nearing the Doha XV Asian Games in 2006, Rexy Mainaky (the Malaysian doubles coach) decided to split them up and partner Tan Boon Heong with Koo Kien Keat instead. This move, nevertheless, proved to be spot-on as this pair went on to become the Asian Games champion, winning the gold medal in their maiden outing by defeating the then Chinese world champions, Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng, in the quarterfinals, Indonesia's Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan in the semifinals, and finally Luluk Hadiyanto-Alvent Yulianto Chandra, also from Indonesia, in the finals.

They also became the first qualifiers to win the Malaysian Open title in 2007.

2009-2011

At the 2009 Japan Super Series, Boon Heong set what Yonex claimed to be the world record for badminton smashes at 421 km/h. However, this was done under lab conditions and recorded by Yonex representatives, and not in an official match, and thus the legitimacy of this record is doubtful at best.

At the 2010 BWF World Championships, Boon Heong and partner Koo Kien Keat launched themselves into...
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