ABU DHABI: Badminton World Federation (BWF) president Poul-Erik Hoyer Larsen has expressed hope that Malaysian badminton ace, Datuk Lee Chong Wei will make his return to the court soon to fulfill the latter’s dream of competing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
As the 36-year-old’s chances of playing in the 2019 Malaysian Open scheduled from April 2-7 remains in doubt, the one-year qualification period for Tokyo starts on April 2019 till April 26, 2020.
It was highly anticipated that Chong Wei would return to defend his Malaysian Open title after an eight-month absence from competitive action since being diagnosed with nose cancer, but Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president, Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria recently said the chances were low.
The three-time Olympics silver medallist, who is currently waiting for the green light from his doctors in Taiwan, must fight his way
up from his current world
ranking of 41 to make the cut for Tokyo as only 38 places have been allocated for the men’s singles category.
“My hope and wish for Lee Chong Wei is that he fulfills his dream and I know that his dream is to participate at the Tokyo 2020,” said Paul, who won the 1996 Atlanta Olympics gold medal in the singles event.
Earlier, Poul signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on behalf of BWF with Special Olympics senior vice-president of Sport and Health, Drew Boshell
at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) here. – Bernama
