KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — National number one men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, are quite contented being the underdogs ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games, next month.
With less than 30 days to go before making their Olympics debut, Aaron believes that an arduous journey lies ahead for them in Japan en route to trying to achieve glory in the world’s biggest multi-sports event.
“I think it’s tough for every player but perhaps, we might be on the good side as we are going there as underdogs,” he told Bernama when contacted recently.
The current world number nine pair are now in tenth position in the Race To Tokyo rankings, according to the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
In an article featured in the BWF website last month, the duo aspire to be Malaysia’s first gold medallists at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The 24-year-old Aaron said they are now fully focused in their final lap of their Tokyo Olympics preparation at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia in Bukit Kiara, here.
“The preparation is well underway. We will be doing our very best to reach our own target in Tokyo,” he added.
Apart from Aaron-Wooi Yik, there’ll be four other Malaysian badmintonr representatives at the Tokyo Olympics led by men’s singles Lee Zii Jia, women’s singles Soniia Cheah, women’s doubles Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean and mixed doubles Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying.
So far, the badminton camp remains the biggest squad for the Malaysian contingent at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
They are joined by Khairul Anuar Mohamad (archery), Mohd Azizulhasni Awang, Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom (track cycling), Nur Dhabitah Sabri, Ng Yan Yee, Pandelela Rinong, Leong Mun Yee (diving), Farah Ann Abdul Hadi (artistic gymnastics) and four sailing athletes – Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy, Nur Shazrin Mohd Latif, Nuraisyah Jamil and Juni Karimah Noor Jamali.
The Tokyo Olympics will be held from July 23 until August 8.
Sources: BERNAMA