KUALA LUMPUR: Reigning men's doubles world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik are in the running for a Badminton World Federation (BWF) award.
Aaron-Wooi Yik were nominated for the Pair of the Year award alongside women's doubles world No. 1 Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan, mixed doubles world No. 1 Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong, and last year's mixed doubles world champions Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand.
Apart from creating history by becoming Malaysia's first-ever world champions in badminton, Aaron-Wooi Yik also reached a career-high ranking of No. 4.
Aaron-Wooi Yik are not the only Malaysians to be shortlisted.
World No. 2 men's singles Lee Zii Jia, who is once again in the limelight, this time for dropping his coach Indra Wijaya, is shortlisted for the Men's Player of the Year award.
The other two in the category are Denmark's world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen and Singapore's Loh Kean Yew.
In the Para-Badminton category, newly crowned world champion Cheah Liek Hou was shortlisted for the Male Player of the Year award, and doubles Muhammad Ikhwan Ramli-Noor Azwan Noorlan will vie for the Pair of the Year award.
"The annual awards ceremony will be held on Dec 5 in conjunction with the BWF World Tour Finals in Bangkok.
"The nominees were selected based on their performances in the 2021-2022 season from Nov 1 last year to Oct 31 this year," read a BWF statement.