KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — National badminton ace Datuk Lee Chong Wei — Malaysia's best hope for bringing home the first Olympic gold medal — can sigh in relief after the draw for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was favourable to him.
In the draw which took place at 11am Brazil time, Chong Wei, as the world number one, was placed as the top seed followed by his two arch-rivals Chen Long and Lin Dan of China as the second and third seeds respectively.
The 33-year-old seems to have an easy passage to the semi-finals after being drawn in Group A with Singapore's Derek Wong and Soren Opti of Suriname.
He was given a bye in the second round, and will face either sixth seed Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan or 10th seed Hu Yun of Hong Kong, in the quarter-finals.
There is a chance the silver medallist at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics could face defending champion Lin Dan, in the semi-finals.
Lin Dan was drawn in Group E along with Vladimir Malkov of Russia, Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam, and David Obernosterer of Austria.
Meanwhile, his compatriot Chen Long would not have any difficulty finishing top of Group P, after being drawn with Kevin Cordon of Guatemala, Andrian Dzolko of Poland and Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, national women's individual shuttler Tee Jing Yi was drawn in Group K with Japan's Akane Yamaguchi, and Kristina Gavnholt of the Czech Republic.
In men's doubles, national pair Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong were drawn in tough Group B, alongside Fu Haifeng/Zhang Nan of China, Philip Chew/Jamie Subandhi from the United States, Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddi of India, and Michael Fuchs/Johannes Schoettler from Germany.
National women's doubles pair Vivian Ho/Woon Khe Wei were drawn in Group C with Indonesia's Greysia Polii/Nitya Krishninda Maheswari, Heather Olver/Aluren Smith of England, and Poon Lok Yan/Tse Ying Suet from Hong Kong.
Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying were drawn in Group C of the mixed doubles event alongside Tontowi Ahmad/Liliana Natsir of Indonesia, Bodin Issara/Pakkawatvilailak of Thailand, and Australian pair Robin Middleton/Leanne Choo. — Bernama
