Goodbye World?
Chong Wei set to miss world meet ... unless BAM intervene
Lee Chong Wei is set to miss out on a second straight world championship in Basel, Switzerland, from Aug 19-25. The qualifying period for the world meet ended on April 30 and the 36-year-old did not make the cut.
PETALING JAYA: Shuttler Lee Chong Wei’s life-long pursuit of the men’s singles crown at the World Championships is all but over.
The 36-year-old is set to miss out on a second straight world meet in Basel, Switzerland, from Aug 19-25.
The qualifying period for the world meet ended on April 30 and the 36-year-old Chong Wei did not make the cut because his world ranking has dropped to No. 115 after a long absence due to an early-stage nose cancer.
A country can only have a maximum of two players if both of them are in the top 150 in the world rankings.
Lee Zii Jia and Liew Daren – ranked No. 21 and No. 24 respectively, have qualified on merit.
Chong Wei has a protected ranking of world No. 3 until Aug 14, but it only applies to the World Tour tournaments.
Badminton World Federation (BWF) in a statement yesterday said: “If a player is eligible for, and is granted a protected ranking, this protected ranking is only applicable for entry in BWF World Tour tournaments.”
And BWF had also confirmed that there will be no wild cards issued for the Basel meet.
“The BWF have decided not to award any wildcards for the Total BWF World Championships 2019 in Basel, Switzerland,” added the statement.
The BWF previously handed twotime Olympic champion Lin Dan a wildcard to play in the 2013 edition in Guangzhou, China and he went on to claim his fifth world crown by beating Chong Wei 21-16, 13-21, 20-17.
Chong Wei pulled out with an injury when Lin Dan held the championship point in the rubber game.
In 2017, Rio Olympic champion Chen Long also accepted a wildcard to play in Glasgow and won bronze.
But there is still glimmer of hope for Chong Wei to get in.
That is, if, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) resort to pulling off an awkward move by entering Chong Wei at the expense of either Zii Jia or Daren.
The national body have the prerogative to decide who they want to send.
It happened once in 2015 when BAM left out Chong Wei Feng to accommodate Chong Wei although the former had qualified on merit alongside Zulfadli Zulkiffli.
Although he was hitting top form at that time, Chong Wei fell short of qualifying as he only returned from an eight-month suspension over a doping violation.
And Chong Wei justified his teammate’s sacrifice by reaching the fourth consecutive final – only to settle for silver once again after losing to Chen Long.
It remains to be seen if BAM would do the same but it’s highly unlikely this time considering Chong Wei has yet to confirm his return to competition .
Should he miss the Basel world meet, it will be a blow for Chong Wei as he’s set to end his illustrious career without a world title. There will be no world championships held next year due to the Olympics.
The next World Championships will only be held in Huelva, Spain, in 2021 and Chong Wei doesn’t look like he’s playing beyond 2020, even if he does eventually return to compete.
Malaysia are also well represented in the other four events – with three qualifiers each in men’s doubles and mixed doubles and two for the women’s singles and women’s doubles.
The men’s doubles players confirmed are Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yi, Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong and Ong Yew Sin Teo Ee Yi; Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying, Goh Soon HuatShevon Lai Jemie and Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing (mixed doubles); Goh Jin Wei and Soniia Cheah (women’s singles); Chow Mei KuanLee Meng Yean and Vivian Hoo-Yap Cheng Wen (women’s doubles).