Defeat won’t disrupt ArifNur Azriyn’s Olympic plan

being bundled out of the Badminton Asia Championships yesterday, national professional men’s doubles Arif Latif-Nur Azriyn Ayub will now focus completely on making the cut for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

According to Arif, losing to tournament third seeds Takeshi Kamura-Keigo Sonoda of Japan has not disrupted their plans for this year.

“This is the first time that we faced them and after this, well we’ll know how to deal with them if we play them again. Our plans remain the same especially when it comes to qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

“We will be going all out to pick up as many points as we possibly can and we have already decided to take part in a few championships after this,” he said after their 16-21, 18-21 loss to the Japanese pair yesterday in Wuhan, China.

Apart from Arif-Nur Azriyn, another men’s pair, Ong Yew SinTeo Ee Yi also suffered the same fate when they went down to second seeds, Li Junhui-Liu Yuchen, 23-21, 22-24, 14-21.

However, All England runnersup Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik did not even have to break a sweat when they received a walkover after their opponents Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia pulled out.

Aaron-Wooi Yik, who are the only Malaysian shuttlers remaining in competition, will face South Korean pair Min Hyuk Kang-Kim Won Ho today.

“We will remain focused as to what we need to do against our opponents in the quarter-finals tomorrow (today), and we will not be making the mistake of taking them lightly that’s for sure,” said Aaron.

Chong Wei Feng also exited the championships when he proved to be no match to China’s Olympic Champion Chen Long who easily won 21-16, 21-7.

In women’s singles, Soniia Cheah was also shown the exit as she put on a tough fight but eventually succumbed to second seeded Japanese Nozomi Okuhara who won 21-17, 12-21, 1521.

In women’s doubles, Anna Cheong-Lim Chiew Sien were also bundled out when they lost 1521, 18-21 to Thai duo, Jongkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai.