Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s Rio Olympics men’s doubles silver medalists – Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong who ended their seven-year partnership in August of 2021, wanted to play as a pair again at the 2022 World Championships which will be held in Tokyo from August 21, 2022, to August 28, 2022.
After their split in August of 2021, Goh/Tan reunited in the 2021 World Championships which took place in Huelva, Spain. However, they lost to He Ji Ting/Tan Qiang of China in the quarter-finals 20-22, 14-22 on December 17, 2021.
This time, they are going to play their second tournament together since going separate ways last August.
According to the rules and regulations of the Badminton World Federation rule, a country can only send a maximum of three doubles pairs to the World Championships if they are all ranked within the top 24.
In addition to Goh/Tan, Malaysia actually has four men’s pairs that met the requirement, including No 9 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, World No. 11 Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi, and World No. 16 Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin.
But due to the limit of sending a maximum of three doubles pairs, only Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi, and Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong would be competing in Tokyo in August.
“Since we have qualified, and our sponsors are willing to send us to Tokyo, we are thinking why not give it a try,” said Goh.
“Who knows, we might end up winning a medal,” added Goh.
However, Goh declined to comment further on his partnership with Tan beyond the 2022 World Championships.
In mixed doubles, although the Rio Olympic silver-medal winners – Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying also qualified in merit for the 2022 World Championships as they are currently still ranked World No. 8, they would not be competing as a pair anymore. Therefore, Malaysia will send World No. 9 Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing, World No. 14 Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai, and World No. 23 Hoo Pang Ron/Cheah Yee See to the World’s meet.
Lee Zii Jia and Daren Liew, Soniia Cheah, and Selvaduray Kisona will represent Malaysia in the men’s singles and women’s singles events respectively, while World No. 10 Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan and World No. 36 Vivian Hoo/Lim Chiew Sien have qualified for the 2022 World Championships’ women’s doubles event.
