KUALA LUMPUR: Reigning SEA Games women’s doubles champions Woon Khe Wei-Vivian Hoo are on cloud nine after learning that they will be going to the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, in August – thanks to a lucky break.
Based on Thursday’s world rankings, which is used to determine the qualifiers for the world meet, Khe Wei-Vivian have moved up one rung to 30th spot and are set to qualify as the country’s second pair.
Initially, there were fears that Khe Wei-Vivian’s compatriots, Amelia Anscelly-Soong Fie Cho, would go instead of them. But Amelia-Fie Cho blew their chances when they dropped 10 rungs from No. 27 to No. 37 in the latest ranking list.
The Ng sisters of Hui Lin-Hui Ern showed that they have struck a right balance between studies and sports when they made the cut as the top pair by virtue of being ranked 24th in the world.
Hui Lin-Hui Ern, who left Malaysia to further their studies at the University of Loughborough in England in 2011, have competed in many tournaments, especially those in Europe, to maintain their world ranking.
A country can have a maximum of three pairs if all of them are ranked in the top 24 and a maximum of two if both are ranked in the top 150 bracket.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) will publish the official list of qualifiers on their website on Friday based on Thursday’s world ranking list and Malaysia should have two representatives in each of the other events as well – men’s singles (Lee Chong Wei, Chong Wei Feng); men’s doubles (Hoon Thien How-Tan Wee Kiong, Lim Khim Wah-Goh V Shem); women’s singles (Tee Jing Yi, Sanntasah Saniru) and mixed doubles (Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying, Tan Aik Quan-Lai Pei Jing).
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