More pressure, bigger threats await us - Aaron

KUALA LUMPUR: Newly crowned men's doubles badminton world champions, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik are expected to be under more intense pressure in their future endeavours after their historic victory at the 2022 BWF World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, yesterday.

Aaron said they are well aware that their success at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium had opened more eyes especially among their opponents to stop them.

"Nothing will be easy in the future, once you have become a champion, everyone will start analysing your game, we have to be more prepared for the challenges from the others especially the rising pairs who are looking to hunt you down.

"Although we are the world champions now, we must keep our focus and be more prepared for every tournament we participate in," he told an online media conference today.

Aaron-Wooi Yik dumped three-time world champions, Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia 21-19, 21-14 to end Malaysia's 45-year wait for a world championship title.

In this regard, Aaron said when they broke their semi-final jinx by beating India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, 20-22, 21-18, 21-16, last Saturday, it was an indicator of better things to come for them.

"We were stopped in six semi-finals this year alone, perhaps God paves the way for us to lift our first World Championship title," he said.

Since the pair began competing for the first time in 2017, Aaron-Wooi Yik have yet to win any individual title before the sensational world championship conquest yesterday.

Meanwhile, Wooi Yik said he would not forget the proud moment when they were crowned the new world champions in Japan.

"Our defeat in the Commonwealth Games semi-finals gave us a useful lesson to rise up and keep our focus in training and it paid off," he said.

Aaron-Wooi Yik failed to win the gold in Birmingham after suffering a humiliating shocking defeat to host pair, Ben Lane-Sean Vendy, 21-18, 17-21, 4-21 in the semi-finals.

Wooi Yik also dedicated their success to Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) coaching director Rexy Mainaky, and assistant coach Tan Bin Shen, who tireless guided them to the court to help them during their critical moments in Japan.

-- BERNAMA