Vietnamese player Nguyen Tien Minh (middle) at the draw of the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships. (Photo: thethaovietnam.vn) Hanoi(VNA) - Vietnam is placed in Group C, along with Japan, Thailand and thePhilippines, after a draw of the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships,which is slated to be played on February 14-19 in HCM City.
Thirteen countries will vie for the honour ofbeing Asia’s best mixed team.
The host team willfield its most outstanding players, including former world No 5 Nguyen TienMinh, who now sits at No 42 for men’s singles, Vu Thi Trang, world women’ssingles No 38, and Nguyen Thi Sen, No 61 for women’s doubles, along with Trang.
To have a chance to advance to the next round,Vietnam must secure second place after the group stage. This means that theyhave to defeat the Philippines, who are not considered a strong rival.
“Japan, the tournament No 3 seed, is theprominent champion favourite, with a strong team featuring the Rio 2016 goldmedalist duo Misaki Matsutomo-Ayaka Takahashi, and the world’s No 6 femaleplayer, Akane Yamaguchi,” Vietnam’s coach, Nguyen The Huy, said after the draw.
“Thailand IS also muchstronger than us, and we will try to win at least a victory against thePhilippines.”
Group A consists of top candidate China, HongKong and Chinese Taipei; Group B is comprised of Malaysia, Indonesia and SriLanka; and Group D includes No 2 the Republic of Korea, India and Singapore.
China has showntheir intention of winning the inaugural event by naming a strong team.
Leading the 16-member team is men’s doubles Olympic champion Zhang Nan. He willbe accompanied by Zheng Siwei, Cheng Qingchen and Jia Yifan.
Qingchen won the mixed doubles title withSiwei, and the women’s doubles crown with Yifan, at last month’s World SuperSeries Finals in Dubai.
French Open champion Shi Yuqi will lead thebattle of the men’s singles, while hopes are high on He Bingjiao, the winner ofthe Japan Open and French Open, world No 4 Sun Yu and reigning world juniorchampion Chen Yufei of the women’s singles.
The championships, being held at the Nguyen DuGymnasium, will be broadcast live in nine countries and territories, and willbe live-streamed on social media to reach viewers worldwide.-VNA
VNA
