BAM TO FIELD YOUNG PLAYERS IN BATC 2026

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 (Bernama) -- Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) will field a line-up of young players to compete in the Badminton Asia Team Championships (BATC) to be held in Qingdao, China from Feb 3 to 8.

BAM, through a post on X, announced that singles player Justin Hoh and national men's doubles, Wan Muhammad Arif Shaharuddin Wan Junaidi-Yap Roy King will be the mainstays for the Malaysian camp at the biennial tournament.

Meanwhile, BAM has also listed Aidil Sholeh Sadikin, Eogene Ewe and Kong Wei Xiang for the men's singles event.

Apart from Wan Muhammad Arif-Roy King, the men's doubles challenge will be taken on by Choong Hon Jian-Muhammad Haikal Nazri and Aaron Tai-Kang Khai Xing.

Meanwhile, the women's squad will be lined up with K. Letshanaa, Wong Ling Ching, Siti Zulaikha Azmi and Oo Shan Zi for the women's singles event.

While the women's doubles will be led by the pairing of Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting, Chong Jie Yu-Vanessa Ng and Cheng Sui Hui-Tan Zhing Yi.

National doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky said BAM will field the country's top pairings such as Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah for the All England Championships in March.

"At least we can see which young players are ready to join the national team to compete in the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup in Horsens, Denmark in April," he told Bernama today.

The national men's squad has been drawn in Group D with Indonesia and Myanmar, with Indonesia expected to be the toughest challenge in the early stages.

As for the women's competition, the squad is in Group W with China and with only two teams in the group, the national squad is guaranteed to advance to the knockout stage and will not meet China in the quarter-finals.

Malaysia emerged BATC champion in 2022 in Shah Alam and emerged runner-up in the last edition in 2024, also in Shah Alam, while the women's team's best achievement was reaching the semi-finals in 2020 and 2022.

-- BERNAMA