KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia may end up with the smallest number of entries for the badminton competition in the Youth Olympic Games this year if they do not start sending their juniors out in the next three months.
Only boys’ singles shuttler Cheam June Wei is in the running for a spot based on his standing in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) junior rankings.
June Wei is in fifth spot, behind India’s Aditya Joshi, Indonesia’s Christie Jonatan, Germany’s Max Weisskirchen and China’s Zhao Jun Peng.
In women’s singles, Malaysia’s top ranked shuttler is Ho Yen Mei – in 13th spot.
There are no Malaysians in the top 20 bracket in the other events.
A country can have a maximum of two players in every event at the Youth Olympic Games, to be held in Nanjing from Aug 16-28, if both of them are in the top four of the world rankings list released on May 1.
There are few junior tournaments on the calendar and the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have yet to name the players for those meets.
Some of the main tournaments are the Asian Junior Championships (Taiwan, Feb 16-23); Li Ning Australian Junior International (Ballarat, Feb 19-22); Yonex Dutch Junior International (Haarlem, Feb 26-March 2); German Junior (Berlin, March 6-9); and the World junior Championships (Alor Setar, April 7-18).
