KUALA LUMPUR: After Azizulhasni Awang and Lee Zii Jia's gold medal declarations, men's pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik also jumped on the bandwagon to stake their claim for the top prize at the Paris Olympics in July.
However, in a slightly different approach, the former world champions told their fans recently in a meet-and-greet event that they had broken down their Paris Olympic target into three key points: to secure qualification, reach the semi-finals (podium finish), and then aim for gold.
It is important to note that world No. 4 Aaron-Wooi Yik have already captured an Olympic bronze in their debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
"Actually, we don't really like to talk about goals, but deep down, we do want to go for gold." Aaron said.
"Every time we compete in the Olympics, we set three goals: first, to qualify, second, to win a medal, and third, to go for the gold.
"We must accomplish each step one by one."
Notably, after winning a medal in every major event, Aaron-Wooi Yik remain Malaysia's best bet for a podium finish at the world's greatest sporting event.
Aaron-Wooi Yik believe their upset of China's world No. 1 Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang at the Thomas Cup recently has set the tone nicely ahead of their Olympic challenge.
"Defeating China's Wei Keng-Wang Chang was a significant breakthrough for us, as we used to lose to them quite often.
"We particularly admire Wang Chang because his flexibility, reflexes and awareness on court are outstanding," said Wooi Yik.
Aaron-Wooi Yik have a few more World Tour events to compete in before the Olympics, and it important for them to maintain their current ranking for a good seeding in Paris.
The pair's next assignment is the Malaysia Masters next week.
Apart from Wei Keng-Wang Chang, the other top pairs above Aaron-Wooi Yik on the world rankings are South Korea's Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung Jae (No. 2) and Asian Games champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty (No. 3) of India.