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Friday September 8, 2006

Badminton: Chong Wei is top seed

BY RAJES PAUL


PETALING JAYA: It is confirmed. Malaysian number one men's singles shuttler Lee Chong Wei is the top seed for the World Championships, which will be held in Madrid from Sept 18-24.

And there were more good news for Malaysia when the International Badminton Federation (IBF) released their latest world rankings yesterday. All the three men's pairs – Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah, Chan Chong Ming-Koo Kien Keat and Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Lin Woon Fui – will also be seeded.

The world rankings determine the seedings for international championships and the 24-year-old Chong Wei kept the number one spot ahead of China's Lin Dan.

Chong Wei will be the second Malaysian men's singles top seed in the World Championships since the inaugural tournament in 1977.

Ironically, it was also in Spain that Mohd Roslin Hashim took top billing in the 2001 championships. But Roslin crashed out in the first round of the tournament played in Seville.

Chong Wei, the three-time Malaysian Open champion, will have third seed Chen Jin of China in his half of the draw. The other half will have Lin Dan and fourth seed Peter Gade-Christensen.

Defending champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia is unseeded. The draw will be made today and it will be interesting to see the half of the draw for Taufik.

Malaysian number two Mohd Hafiz Hashim dropped one rung to number nine in the rankings and the former All-England champion will have one of the top eight seeds in his path in the third round.

In the doubles, Malaysia, who is the only country to have three men’s pairs in the championships have Hong Kong Open runners-up Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah as the third seeds. Chong Ming-Kien Keat are at number five and Fairuzizuan-Woon Fui are one rung below.

There was a switch in the top two positions in the rankings with China’s Cai Yun-Fu Haifeng ahead of South Koreans Jung Jae-sung-Lee Yong-dae.

National doubles coach Rexy Mainaky was all smiles yesterday.

“I am happy that all the Malaysian pairs are among the top eight in the rankings. This means that they will not face each other until the quarter-finals,” he said.

“This is a good boost for the team ahead of the world meet. Now, we hope for a good draw.”

On the team, who left for Madrid on Wednesday, Rexy said: “I spoke to Wan Wah today.

“They have arrived safely in Madrid. Everything went smoothly for them and they will start training from tomorrow.”

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