BADMINTON England today showed they are wasting no time in starting their planning for the 2016 Olympics in Rio by naming Jakob Høi the new Head Doubles Coach for the GB programme.

For the last three years the 36-year-old Dane has been National Head Coach in Germany, where he specialised in men’s and mixed doubles. Before joining the German Badminton Association, he had risen from a being a successful club coach in Denmark to become National Under 19 coach and an Assistant Coach to the Danish team.

Performance Director Jens Grill said: "We feel Jakob is the right man to lead our doubles players to the next level.

"We have players in the world’s top 20 but we have seen during the Olympic Games that our players still need to move to a higher level. We are confident Jakob can take them to that level while at the same time bringing on the other promising doubles players coming through.

"We have more big challenges ahead with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 and the Olympics in Rio in 2016. It is crucial to get Jakob involved at the very start of this new phase. We have seen what Jakob has done with Germany, who are the most improved European nation over the last three or four years. We want him to bring that drive to the GB programme.

"He is an outstanding coach and will be an excellent addition to the team we are building for the next Olympic cycle. He will be directly responsible for the doubles disciplines, allowing Kenneth Jonassen to focus fully on our Men’s and Women’s singles."

Høi said of his appointment: "I am motivated by people with a goal, and at best an ambitious goal. From meetings with players, managers and coaches of BADMINTON England it has been confirmed to me that I will meet a great organisation, a great team, and not least, a great potential of players.

"The attraction for me is to work in and influence the training environment, the culture and the individuals on a daily basis. By doing so we will get a chance to make good results better.

"I already have quite a good idea about the individual strengths and points of development for several of the players. I will be attacking all areas of development and once I get started at Milton Keynes I will be presenting them with a ‘game plan’ to take them towards our targets."

BADMINTON England hope to have Høi installed at Milton Keynes in the autumn.

Press release by Badminton England, Photo by Sven Heise.