Chong Wei’s ranking drop expected

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PETALING JAYA: Datuk Lee Chong Wei’s drop in ranking following his failure to take part in the Indonesian Open Badminton Championship last week was expected.

Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) general manager Kenny Goh said however, the slip in raking would not affect Chong Wei’s seeding at the 2012 London Olympics next month.

He said Chong Wei’s slip in ranking was also due to his failure to complete a singles encounter at the Thomas Cup championship in Wuhan, China last month.

Voting for the London Olympics badminton will be based on the world ranking on May 3, he told reporters at the launch of the Mesuma Sdn Bhd (Mesuma) premises here yesterday.

Mesuma is the official sponsor of sports apparel for the Malaysian contingent to the Olympic Games since six years ago.

According to the latest ranking of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), China’s Lin Dan piped Chong Wei as the world number one player by collecting 93,313.4114 points while Chong Wei slipped to number two with 91,898.7300 points.

China’s Cheng Long and Chen Jin came in third and fourth after collecting 82,460.3161 and 71,292.9100 points respectively.

For the record, Chong Wei held the world number one position for three years and 11 months from Aug 20, 2008, four days after he lost to Lin Dan in the final at of the Beijing Olympics 2008.

Before Chong Wei’s meteoric rise, Lin Dan was number one for four years from Feb 2004, the longest streak at the top. — Bernama