2025 WUG: Badminton Team's Medal Chances Bright After Favourable Draw

From Ahmad Nazrin Syahmi bin Mohamad Arif

ESSEN (Germany), July 18 (Bernama) -- Malaysia’s chances of winning a medal in the badminton mixed team event at the 2025 Rhine-Ruhr World University Games received a boost following a favourable round-of-16 draw, with the national team, who topped Group D meeting Group C runners-up France at Westenergie Sporthalle in Mulheim an der Ruhr tomorrow.

Should they be able to beat the French, the national team will be up against the United States or India in the quarterfinal before setting up a likely meeting between either champions Japan or Taiwan in the semi-final.

An easy match up at the knock-out stage will help Malaysia retain their ideal match fitness after playing only one group match against Canada, which they won 4-1 today.

The Malaysian badminton team aim to improve on the two bronze medals they picked up at the last WUG, hoping to secure a silver at the very least.

In other competitions today, national swimmer Khiew Hoe Yean qualified for the semi-final of the men’s 200 metre (m) freestyle event at Schwimm-und Sprunghalle im Europasportpark in Berlin by finishing third in Heat Six with a time of 1 minute 48.68 seconds (s), after winning the silver in the men’s 400 m freestyle yesterday.

He is joined by teammate Arvin Shaun Singh Chahal, who also qualified by finishing sixth in Heat Eight with a time of 1:49.66s. Both swimmers will compete in the semi-finals, scheduled to take place at night (early Saturday morning Malaysia time).

Meanwhile, national men’s poomsae trio of Randy Owen Augustine Linggi, Chin Ken Haw and Jason Loo Jun Wei only managed to finish sixth in the final, a reasonable achievement for the country’s first ever participation in the event. South Korea took gold, while silver went to China and Taiwan won the bronze.

South Korea is at the top of the medal standings with three gold, three silver and one bronze, followed by the United States (3,1,6) and China (2,3,2) as of 5 pm local time (11 pm Malaysia time).

-- BERNAMA