Wanted man: Lee Zii Jia hopes to dislodge Augus Ng (above) as the eighth seed for the Tokyo Olympics.
PETALING JAYA: Newly crowned All-England champion Lee Zii Jia will compete in next month’s Indian Open after all.
The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have made a U-turn on the world No. 8’s participation by entering him for the May 11-16 meet so that he could get a better seeding at July’s Tokyo Olympics.
The decision came just days after they announced that Zii Jia would be rested from the third-tier World Tour event to keep him fresh for the Malaysian Open taking place a week later (May 25-30).
Saturday, 3 April 2021
The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) is refusing to put any unnecessary pressure on players heading to Tokyo 2020 as it sticks to its goal of achieving the country’s long-awaited first Olympic gold medal in the sport at Paris 2024.
Malaysia has achieved eight badminton medals since the sport made its debut on the Olympic programme at Barcelona 1992, but has so far failed to secure gold.
The nation has won 11 Olympic medals in all, but none were gold.
Lee Chong Wei holds three men’s singles silver medals, with last coming at Rio 2016 where Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong and Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying claimed medals of the same colour in men’s doubles and mixed doubles respectively.
KUALA LUMPUR: Reigning All-England champion Lee Zii Jia is ready to raise the bar higher – to crack into the world’s top-five ranking.
Not contented to just to stay in the top 10, the 23-year-old has vowed to build on his career-best position of world No. 8 that he attained after his stunning victory in Birmingham two weeks ago.
However, Zii Jia reckons that he must bide his time before he can break the domination of the top five – Japan’s Kento Momota, Denmark’s duo Viktor Axelsen and Anders Antonsen, Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen and Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting.
The ‘Big Five’ hegemony are set to remain at the top for a long period as they have raced away from the rest of the pack in terms of ranking points.
Olympics hopefuls: Chow Mei Kuan (front) and Lee Meng Yean are still looking at sealing their Tokyo tickets.
KUALA LUMPUR: Fans will have to wait longer to catch national singles ace Lee Zii Jia back in action after his All-England triumph.
The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) confirmed that the world No. 8 will be rested for the upcoming World Tour event, the Indian Open from May 11-16.
Although the third-tier tournament in New Delhi is one of the Olympic qualifiers, it will have no impact on Zii Jia’s bid as he has virtually assured his place for the Tokyo Games in July.
On a roll: Justin Hoh’s goal is to win as many matches and become a champion this week.
PETALING JAYA: Justin Hoh proved once again that he’s playing well beyond his years after getting off to a perfect start in the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) Internal Challenge where the top national juniors take on senior back-up players.The 17-year-old won his opening two round-robin matches and the highlight was when he came back from 13-19 in the rubber game to beat 19-year-old Ong Ken Yon 16-21, 21-19, 23-21 in a 63-minute thriller at the Academy Badminton Malaysia in Bukit Kiara yesterday.