SHAH ALAM, Feb 12 — The country’s leading men’s doubles pair of Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, have a “secret weapon” but are declining to reveal or give clues on their new training regime ahead of the 2024 Badminton Asia Team Championships (BATC).

Aaron said the new training pattern introduced by the coaching line up is also to prepare themselves for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games which will be held from July 26 to August 11.

The pair, who were the 2022 world champions, are currently in fifth position in world ranking in the ‘Race to Paris’.

“I think everything is going well for now as we are going through a new training programme in Olympics preparations so we are starting to get used to the new training routine... but we cannot share it.

“This is probably the 10th or more team tournament that we have participated in. I think the doubles section is more fun because we can play scratch pairs and teammates are behind us to support us,” he said at the Setia City Convention Centre here today.

The BATC will take place at the Setia City Convention Centre starting tomorrow until February 18.

Meanwhile, Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) coaching director Rexy Mainaky informed that the coaching staff are still discussing the order of players who will be fielded in the first BATC match of Group B tomorrow.

He said careful planning was needed considering that Malaysia would first meet two easy countries namely Brunei (tomorrow), Kazakhstan (on February 14) before meeting real ‘tough cookies’ Taiwan (February 15).

“There was a discussion from the singles group about who will be relegated. We will see if Lee Zii Jia wants to play and test the court (first) so we will send him down.

“The doubles players may be discussed this afternoon because they may want to adapt to the court... after all, we are not saying that Kazakhstan and Brunei are easy foes, but if we can win 5-0, we will definitely want the best (result),” he said.

Asked if the coaching staff have any plans to test ‘scratch pairs’, Rexy said in a nutshell that he still does not know if they will use the strategy.

Malaysia’s challenge, which comes down to as being the defending champions, is supported by the four singles players of Lee Zii Jia, Ng Tze Yong, Leong Jun Hao and Eogene Ewe while Aaron-Wooi Yik, Nur Izzuddin Rumsani-Goh Sze Fei and Choong Hon Jian-Muhammad Haikal Nazri are slated for the doubles competition. — Bernama