The Star Online > Sports Tough for Malaysia to finish in top four PETALING JAYA: Malaysia can forget about finishing among the top four in the World Junior Badminton Championships starting in Vancouver on Thursday. Malaysia, the joint fifth-eighth seeds, have been drawn with top seeds China in Group W. The other teams in the group are Slovenia and Peru. China, led by world junior champion Chen Jin, are the overwhelming favourites to win the mixed team tournament, played in the same format as the Sudirman Cup. A match will comprise the boys’ singles and doubles, girls’ singles and doubles and mixed doubles. Only the group champions advance to the second stage, with the four teams battling it out for the top four spots in the world. The group runners-up will advance to the second stage to determine their rankings from the fifth to eighth positions. Malaysia will have Chong Wei Feng, Tan Chun Seang, Lim Kenn and Azrihanif Azahar in the boys’ singles and Hoon Thien How-Tan Boon Heong in the doubles. The girls are Anita Kaur Raj, Amelia Anscelly and Haw Chiou Hwee. The team event will be followed by the individual competition from Oct 25-30. n THE GROUPINGS Group W: China, Malaysia, Slovenia, Peru. Group X Sub-group 1: Indonesia, Canada, Russia. Sub-group 2: Denmark, Czech Republic, Sweden. Group Y Sub-group 1: England, United States, Singapore. Sub-group 2: Taiwan, India, Holland. Group Z: Japan, South Korea, Germany, Hong Kong. (Note: Winners of the sub-groups will face each other to determine the group winners.)
I remember Hoon Thien How-Tan Boon Heong. They were the ones who reached the semi-finals of the Singapore Satellite. And the ones who upset the first seeds in the first round. They are a very good pair.