KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — National badminton ace Datuk Lee Chong Wei hopes that fellow shuttler Chong Wei Feng does not continue to feel frustrated after being dropped from the World Badminton Championships 2015 to be held in Jakarta, this August.

Instead, he said, Wei Feng should rise up and be more motivated to seek a slot at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“I hope he (Wei Feng) will keep up his spirits,” he said.

The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) ended the guessing game after announcing that Chong Wei and Zulfadli Zulkiffli were selected to represent the country at the World Championships, dropping Wei Feng from the list.

Wei Feng and Zulfadli had qualified on merit for being the 31st and 41st respectively in the world rankings, while Chong Wei is in 45th place.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) stipulates that each country can only send two singles players for the tournament.

Fresh after serving his eight-month ban for failing a doping test last August, Chong Wei, however, was not given a “wild card” by the BWF.

Based on several factors, Wei Feng, 27, had to be dropped to make way for Zulfadli, 21.

Chong Wei, who leads the challenge for the national squad in the Sudirman Cup in Dongguan, China exhibited a favourable performance when contributing two points for Malaysia, one each against South Korea and India.

The national badminton squad currently top Group 1D after winning two matches, advancing to the quarter-finals. — Bernama