MEN’s singles hope in badminton, Lee Zii Jia OLY checked in at the Olympic Village in Saint Ouen by the River Seine after arriving in Paris this morning (Paris time), accompanied by coach Wong Tat Meng.
The 26-year old who made his Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020 where he lost in a three-game match in the Round of 16 to eventual silver medallist Chen Long OLY from China, was welcomed by officials from the Malaysian Secretariat at Block A20, in the same building that houses Slovakia, the Netherlands, Poland, Indonesia and Japan to name a few.
Zii Jia who won the Thailand Open in May and followed it up with a runner-up finish at the Malaysia Masters, is bidding to become the third male shuttler from Malaysia to land a medal in singles at the Olympics, after Datuk Abdul Rashid Sidek OLY (bronze at Atlanta 1996) and three-time silver medallist Datuk Wira Lee Chong Wei OLY.
For Tat Meng, he is looking forward to his third Olympic Games appearance, the second with the Malaysian team after coaching Wong Choong Hann in Beijing 2008.
Zii Jia’s two opponents in Group G are World No. 63 Spanish Pablo Abian and World No. 70 Sri Lankan Viren Nettasinghe. He is expected to face Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the Round of 16.
