Aaron does not expect easy ride in debut C’wealth Games

Multi-sport achievers: Aaron Chia (left) and Soh Wooi Yik won a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics last year and captured gold in the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines.

PETALING JAYA: National men’s doubles shuttler Aaron Chia does not expect an easy ride in his debut Commonwealth Games with Soh Wooi Yik although both have done well in multi-sport Games.

The world No. 6 will be the favourites for gold in the individual event as they will be the highest ranked pair in the fray but Aaron prefers to be cautious.

The Games will be held from July 28-Aug 8.

The Malaysian pair’s past good results in multi-sport Games could work in their favour. They won a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics last year and captured gold in the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines.

The hope is on Aaron-Wooi Yik to wrest back the gold medal last won by seniors Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. At the last edition at the Gold Coast (2018), Marcus Ellis-Chris Langridge of England upstaged V Shem-Wee Kiong in the semi-finals en route to winning the gold.

“We want to win a medal in our first Commonwealth Games but there will be other strong pairs too from England, India and Singapore. So, it will not be easy,” admitted Aaron.

The contenders from other countries are India’s world No. 8 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, England’s Ben Lane-Sean Vendy (No. 19) and Singapore’s Terry Hee-Loh Kean Hean (No. 50).

Among the three, Satwiksairaj-Chirag are the most dangerous threat to Aaron-Wooi Yik’s medal hopes.

The Indian pair have shown steady improvement and were in stunning form en route to winning their country’s first Thomas Cup in Bangkok last month.

Aaron-Wooi Yik said he would be wary of Chirag and Satwiksairaj despite never losing to the pair in their four meetings so far.

But their focus right now is the Indonesian Masters (June 7-12) and Indonesian Open (June 14-19) in Jakarta.

“We had about two weeks of training since the end of the Thailand Open in May. We are using the time to work on improving our weaknesses. Our preparations are going well for the tournaments in Indonesia,” said Aaron.

Aaron-Wooi Yik will open their campaign in the Indonesian Masters against a qualifier. A win will pit them against the Commonwealth Games-bound Lane and Vendy in the second round.

The others in the top half of their draw are top seeds Indonesians Marcus Fernaldi-Kevin Sanjaya and their compatriots Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana; Malaysia’s Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi; and the Popov brothers Christo-Toma Junior of France.