By V. Ashok

YOU can expect defending champions, Viktor Axelsen and Yamaguchi Akane to raise their high quality performance at the World Championship starting in Copenhagen Denmark, today.

Both are firm favourites again in the men and women singles at the tournament which is labelled as the most competitive in recent times – filled with stars, mostly from Asia.

For Axelsen, the world No.1, it would be a memorable outing to defend his crown in front of his vociferous home supporters. Like it or not, the tall Dane – the most consistent player on the planet at the moment – is likely to be the champion for this edition.

Even Malaysia No.1, Lee Zii Jia – after his first round exit in the last few Super Series edition prior to this tournament – don’t look capable to stop the Olympic champion.

Back home, our dream for another gold medal hunt is heating up again after the historic victory by our men doubles pair, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik in Tokyo last year.

Can they repeat the famous act again in Copenhagen? It will be a tough mission but nothing is impossible to prove they are a genuine champion. The world No.4 must lift their game to the next level and show something extra ordinary in order to pull through all the hurdles before booking their ticket for another final.

The truth is they will face many fast rising pairs from Asia and Europe who are out to deny their dream.

Our national No.1 pair who are seeded fourth here, received a bye in the first round and are expected to meet Jeppe Bay-Lars Molhede of Denmark in the second round before an anticipated cracker against Olympic champions, Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin of Taiwan in the third.

The reality is, the men doubles is our best hope for a podium finish. Aaron-Wooi Yik need to be more composed. Both these players knew very well what is needed at this big stage after the good experience from the last year edition as world champions.

Hope some valuable advice from our former great, Lee Chong Wei may inject new spirit to them to be hungry for another glory.

The three times Olympic silver medalist offered words of encouragement recently and asked them to go out and just do it.

National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky opined that skills alone not enough and being the defending champion doesn’t mean is an advantage for the pair.

“I have played at this stage before. Being a defending champion will not give a huge advantage. We cannot say that skills will help us to win too,” said Rexy as quoted by The Star, recently.

He added, it’s all about desire wanting to win, not only to remain as lip service but to prove it.

For your information, no reminders are needed that the world title remains their only international success to date.

Rexy is also equally excited about his women top pair – Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah to achieve a podium finish with the right character in Copenhagen.

At the World Championships, the world No.11 will attempt to become the first Malaysian women doubles pair to win a medal at the major event.

They have a first round bye and are likely to meet Julie Macpherson-Ciara Torrance from Scotland in the next round before the big match against world No.4, Mayu Matsumoto- Wakana Nagahara.

Their coach believe his charges has the standard to go and snatch a medal there but reminded they must possess the character and desire to achieve it.

Wong Pei Tty-Chin Hui were the only Malaysian pair to reach the quarter-finals at the 2007 World Championships in Kuala Lumpur and Pearly-Thinaah can go one better if they can play true to form in Copenhagen.

Our men singles hope, as expected lies on the shoulder of Zii Jia and Ng Tze Yong. That too is very doubtfull at this moment looking at their results and consistency factor in the world tour series since January.
Maybe some element of luck would change our heroes fortune.

Zii Jia, the world No.13 will be making his fourth appearance and his best achievement is qualifying as quarter-finalist in 2018 and 2019.

A backlash from Chong Wei regarding his attitude was the highlight in sports news recently. But the former All-England champion should take this as a challenge to prove something positive on the court. Let’s see. Who knows.

The former great expressed his disappointment with Zii Jia and his coach, Wong Tat Meng for hitting out at the Badminton Association Malaysia (BAM), following the national body’s rule that independent players can only train at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara once a week if they wear the apparel sponsors Yonex.

Yonex is BAM’s official sponsor while Zii Jia is funded by Victor.

A usually calm Chong Wei came hard on the national ace and said he don’t understand why Zii Jia and his coach are making a big fuss over this and reminded they need to follow the rules if want to train in BAM.

With our national ace landing himself into many unwanted problems, focus can be shifted to Tze Yong, who is a much improved player to bring some bright spark for our team’s challenge in Denmark.

With a string of unexpected wins, including shocking Axelsen to reach the All-England quarter-finals in March, he also defeated 2021 world champion, Loh Kean Yew from Singapore, Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka Long, Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen and world No.5, Jonathan Christie of Indonesia.

Tze Yong with his better attitude and game focus, might well be our trump card this time.

Majulah sukan untuk negara!

Aaron-Wooi Yik repeat the Tokyo spirit to defend their crown in Copenhagen

FAST FACTS

China leads the gold medal tally with 69

*BWF World Championship is one of the prestigious badminton tournaments. The 2023 edition starts on August 21- 27 which is held at Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark.

*The inaugural edition was held in Denmark in 1977 and the host won three titles in the men singles, women singles and mixed doubles while Indonesia (MD) dan Japan (WD) won one title each.

*The championship was earlier held triennially till 1983 and the biennially till 2005.Since 2005 the competition I conducted annualy (leaving the Olympic year in 2021).

*Lin Dan is the most successful player in history of the world championship having won five titles (2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013).

*In the women singles, Caroline Marin is the most successful with three titles (2014, 2015, 2018) while Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng from China won the men’s doubles four time in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2010.

*So far 13 countries have won gold medal at the championship.