Zii Jia nominated for most improved player award

KUALA LUMPUR: All England 2021 champion Lee Zii Jia has been nominated in the Most Improved Player of the Year 2020/2021 category in this year’s Badminton World Federation (BWF) Player of the Year Award.

Zii Jia will be challenged by compatriots Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, the Tokyo Olympics men’s doubles bronze medallists, according to a statement released by BWF on Thursday.

The other nominees for the award are Olympics men’s doubles gold medallists Wang Chi-Lin-Lee Yang of Taiwan and women’s singles world number 10 Pornpawee Chochuwong from Thailand.

Tokyo Paralympics men’s singles SU5 (physical impairment) champion Cheah Liek Hou is among the contenders in the Male Para Badminton Player of the Year category. Pramod Bhagat of India, Daiki Kajiwara (Japan), Kim Jongjun (South Korea), Lucas Mazur (France) and Qu Zimo (China) were also shortlisted in the same category with Liek Hou.

Two Denmark players - Tokyo Olympics champion Viktor Axelsen and Anders Antonsen will vie for the Male Player of the Year award with the other two shuttlers, namely China’s Wang Yi Lyu and Yuta Watanabe of Japan.

The nominees for Female Player of the Year are China’s Chen Yu Fei, Carolina Marin of Spain, Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan and Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.

In the Pair of the Year category, five pairs are in the running - Kim Soyeong-Kong Heeyong of South Korea, Greysia Polio-Apriyani Rahayu (Indonesia), Wang Yi LyuHuang Dong Ping (China), Wang Chi-Lin-Lee Yang (Taiwan) and Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino (Japan).

The winners will be announced during the Bali leg of the BWF World Tour in Indonesia on Dec 1-5.