Tricky draw for Aaron-Wooi Yik at the Paris Olympic Games

Medal prospect: Men's doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik in action during training session at Badminton Association of Malaysia, Bukit Kiara. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star

PETALING JAYA: National men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik have been handed a tricky draw for the Paris Olympics.

The world No. 5 pair former world champions have been drawn in Group A with top seeds Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang of China, England’s Ben Lane-Sean Vendy and Canada’s Adam Dong-Nyl Yakura in the badminton competition from July 27-Aug 5 at the Adidas Arena in Port de la Chapelle.

World No. 1 Weikeng-Chang of China will be their toughest opponents, as Aaron-Wooi Yik have only beaten them twice out of eight matches.

While Aaron-Wooi Yik should have no problems getting past the shuttlers from Canada, Ben-Sean could be the spoilers in their attempt to finish as top two in the group in order to progress to the quarter-finals.

Although Aaron-Wooi Yik have beaten the pair four times in the past, the English pair won their last encounter with the Malaysians at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games semi-finals.

In Group B are fourth seeds and world champions Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae from South Korea, France’s Christo Popov-Toma Popov, Thailand’s Supak Jomkoh-Kittinupong Kedren, and Czech Republic’s Ondrej Kral-Adam Mendrek.

Group C also have four pairs - third seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty of India, France’s Ronan Labar-Lucas Corvee, Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto, and Germany’s Mark Lamsfuss-Marvin Seidel.

Group D is the only group with five pairs and they are second seeds Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark, China’s Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi, Taiwan’s Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin, Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi, and Vinson Chiu-Joshua Yuan from the United States.

The draw for the men’s doubles was delayed due to French pair Labar-Corvee’s success in disputing a decision by BWF that saw a miscalculation demoting them to be ranked below the Popov brothers in the qualifying rankings.

The Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS) then ordered BWF to ask the IOC to add Lobar-Corvee as the 17th pair to the Games. And for the first time, France will have two men's pairs in the Olympics.