KUALA LUMPUR – Former world champion Aaron Chia has criticised the Badminton World Federation (BWF) for delaying the draw for the men’s doubles at the Paris Olympics.
Aaron is also unimpressed that there are 17 pairs set to compete in Paris instead of the original 16, due to the late inclusion of Lucas Corvee-Ronan Labar.
This discrepancy caused the draw for the men’s doubles to be postponed, and there is now a possibility that they will be grouped with five pairs due to the imbalanced number of entries.
Aaron said he was not just voicing his own concerns but also advocating for all players, who should not have to face this issue stemming from the BWF’s mistake in calculating the Road to Paris rankings.
“Yes, I admit, for other pairs, they will feel it’s unfair because this is a technical issue that arose from the BWF, not a problem caused by the players, but now we have to bear it.
“So for the players who will compete against four other pairs in the group, it will indeed be a bit challenging. But for now, the decision has been made, and we can’t say much, we just need to prepare well.
“To say we’re not satisfied, yes, we’re not satisfied, but there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Aaron.
The draws for all four badminton events at the Paris Olympics, scheduled to commence on July 27 at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena, were successfully conducted on Friday. However, the draw for the men’s doubles will be held on a date to be announced later by the BWF.
Labar and Corvee were initially in a strong position to qualify based on the Race to Paris rankings, but they were unexpectedly demoted due to an error in calculation by the BWF, allowing the French brothers Toma and Christo Popov to surpass their ranking.
Subsequently, Labar and Corvee contested this decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and won their case. As a result, the BWF was compelled to include this pair in the Paris Olympics, leading to France having two representatives in men’s doubles.
According to the original BWF regulations, doubles events at the Olympic Games are limited to only 16 pairs, and countries can send two representatives if they rank within the top eight in the Race to Paris standings.
Even though this issue does not interfere with Aaron and his partner Soh Wooi Yik’s Olympic preparations, it still leaves them feeling somewhat dissatisfied.
“For me, this issue isn’t affecting my Olympic preparations. However, I still find it unfair because, according to the rules, a country can only send two pairs to the Olympics if both pairs are among the top eight (in the Road to Paris rankings).
“But now, from that country (France), which isn’t in that position, they can have two pairs, and that’s what makes me feel, not just (Chinese Taipei’s) Wang Chi-lin and Lee Yang and all the other pairs, feel it’s unfair,” he added. – July 14, 2024