PETALING JAYA: Malaysia will have to wait until Sept 19 to find out their opponents in the men’s and women’s team events at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Badminton Asia secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh said the draw will only be conducted during the team managers’ meeting, a day before the badminton competition begins on Sept 20.
The draw for the individual events, meanwhile, will be held on Sept 24 after the team competition ends.
“There are two events. One is the team event and the other is the individual event.
“For the team event, they will conduct the draw on Sept 19 during the team managers’ meeting. This is already stated in the Asian Games handbook.
“If I’m not mistaken, the team rankings were released yesterday. Based on those rankings, they will determine the seedings and the draw will be conducted on Sept 19 during the team managers’ meeting,” said Kenny.
His clarification also dismisses a draw that had been circulating on social media in recent days, which claimed that Malaysia would face Hong Kong in the first round of the men’s team event.
With the official draw yet to take place, only the seedings have been confirmed so far.
Malaysia are ranked sixth in the men’s team event, with Indonesia, China, Taiwan and Japan occupying the four seeded spots.
In the women’s team event, Malaysia are ranked seventh, while China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are the four seeded teams.
At the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games three years ago, Malaysia’s men were knocked out in the first round by South Korea, while the women’s team did not take part.
