Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s World No. 4 men’s pair, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, hopes to build up to hit top form for the badminton event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Chia/Soh will compete in at least three tournaments before the Paris Games, starting with the Malaysia Masters from May 21 to 26, followed by the Singapore Open (May 28 to June 2) and the Indonesia Open (June 4 to 9).
The Indonesia Open is expected to feature all the top pairs in the world as it is a BWF World Tour Super 1000 event.
The former world champions need to produce positive results in all three tournaments to at least remain in the top four in the world rankings and secure a favorable draw in the Paris Olympics.
Chia told Malaysian media that there is still a lot of work to be done to improve their performance.
“At the moment, our performance is gradually improving but we haven’t reached our peak yet.”
“We still have several more tournaments to compete in and hope to challenge the world’s top pairs. So, we can get more prepared before the Olympics.”
“Before the tournament starts, there will be a rest period of four to six weeks, so we need to maintain momentum and the competitive atmosphere in the Olympics,” continued Chia.
Chia/Soh, who helped the Malaysian men’s team win a bronze medal at the Thomas Cup competition in Chengdu last Sunday, managed to end their losing streak against the world number one pair from China, Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang, in the semi-finals.
In that match, Chia/Soh won in three sets 15-21, 21-12, 21-17, thus ending their three-match losing streak against Liang/Wang.
It’s worth mentioning that Chia/Soh caused a surprise by winning the bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by beating Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan 17-21, 21-17, 21-14, which was also their first Olympic appearance.
