Superb setting:Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik are loving the serene environment at their training venue in Aire Sur La Lys.
PETALING JAYA: It’s isolated and quiet.
But for men’s doubles ace Aaron Chia, the final 10-day tune-up at the Aire Sur La Lys is ideal before he and Soh Wooi Yik embark on the quest to win gold at the Paris Olympics.
The badminton and fitness facilities at the northern town of France was chosen by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to help the players acclimatise and also complete the final phase without distractions.
Aaron-Wooi Yik, women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah and mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei were accompanied by several other pairs for sparring during the camp which began on Sunday.
The Olympics badminton competition is from July 27-Aug 5 at Adidas Arena in Paris.
“The preparation for this year has been very good. This place is quiet and we are probably the only team training here and it is very ideal to prepare for the Olympics,” said Aaron.
“This environment will help us to be fully focused on our training and our final tune-up before the Olympics.”
The isolated training is also crucial as Aaron-Wooi Yik will have the chance to prepare specifically to face their opponents at the Olympics after being drawn in Group A on Monday.
Malaysia have world No. 1 Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang of China, England’s Ben Lane-Sean Vendy and Dong Adam-Nyl Yakura of Canada in Group A where two pairs will advance to the quarter-finals.
However, the group of death at the Olympics is certainly Group D where defending champions Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin of Taiwan, 2023 world championships silver medallists Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark, 2021 Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi of Japan, China’s Liu Yuchen-Ou Xuanyi and Americans Vincent Chiu-Joshua Yuan will be battling for two last eight spots.
Aaron’s relief was understandable for avoiding Group D as it would make things difficult to get past the group stage.
The fact that Aaron-Wooi Yik defeated Weikeng-Wang Chang in a 1-3 defeat to China in the semi-finals of the Thomas Cup in Chengdu will be a motivating factor for the Malaysians.
“This is actually a decent draw for us. It is really tough in Group D and we just have to focus on our matches in Group A,” added Aaron.
Meanwhile, Wooi Yik also shared the same sentiment as the delayed men’s doubles draw has concluded and they know what needs to be done to advance to the knockout stage.
“Now that we know who we are meeting, our path is very clear.We can now specifically prepare to play our opponents in the next one week of training,” said Wooi Yik.
National coaching director Rexy Mainaky and other coaches Tan Bin Shen (men’s doubles), Hoon Thien How (women’s doubles) and Nova Widianto (mixed doubles) are also there to psyche up their respective pairs.
Rexy said the draw doesn’t make a big difference in Aaron-Wooi Yiik’s approach as the initial goal is to advance to the knockout stage first.
“We have to concentrate on clearing the group stage. That is the first objective and Aaron-Wooi Yik must continue to prepare themselves mentally to face the challenge,” said Rexy.
