KUALA LUMPUR: National singles shuttler Liew Daren’s hope of making a trip to this year’s World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, in August is as good as over.
The qualifying period for the world meet ended with the recently-concluded China Masters Grand Prix Gold in Changzhou and the Badminton World Federation (BWF) will finalise the qualifiers based on Thursday’s world rankings.
Daren, who has dropped to No. 63 in the world, is set to miss the cut. Only world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei and world No. 20 Chong Wei Feng are set to qualify in the men’s singles.
A country can have a maximum of three players if all of them are ranked in the top 24 of the world rankings. And they can only have a maximum of two if both are in the top 150 bracket.
This is the first time in many years that Malaysia will not have a maximum of three entries in the men’s singles for the world meet. This could be due to Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) decision to cut down on the number of competitions for many of their players this year and the lack of strong performances by some of their back-up players.
In fact, Malaysia also won’t have maximum representations in any of the events this year. In the men’s doubles, only Hoon Thien How-Tan Wee Kiong and Lim Khim Wah-Goh V Shem are looking good to qualify.
Former national No. 1 men’s doubles pair Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong are ranked 23rd but they may drop further when the new ranking list is out. Besides, Kien Keat has resigned from the national team.
Last year, Malaysia had a maximum representation in the men’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
There could also be bad news for reigning SEA Games champions Woon Khe Wei-Vivian Hoon in women’s doubles. The duo are ranked 31st and lying behind two other pairs – former internationals Ng Hui Lin-Ng Hui Ern and Amelia Anscelly-Soong Fie Cho.
However, a decision on whether Vivian-Khe Wei will get to go will depend on BAM, who can still enter these players by withdrawing those ranked ahead of them.
After all, they have done it before.
In 2011, former internationals Gan Teik Chai-Tan Bin Shen qualified for the World Championships in Wembley on merit but did not get to go as BAM sent Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Hoon Thien How instead.
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