KUALA LUMPUR: Men's doubles coach Tan Bin Shen will equip world No. 5 Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik with the necessary weapons to win Malaysia's first Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games.
Aaron-Wooi Yik paid a heavy price for not maintaining a top-four position in the world rankings, resulting in them not being seeded for the Paris Games later this month.
The seeding list will be released on July 9, and the draw will take place on July 12.
The four pairs expected to be seeded are world No. 1 Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang of China, No. 2 Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark, No. 3 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Chetty of India, and No. 4 Kang Min Hyuk-Seo Seung Jae of South Korea.
As an unseeded pair, Aaron-Wooi Yik are likely to be drawn against one of these seeded rivals during the group stage.
Each group will comprise four pairs, with the top two finishers advancing to the quarter-finals.
Aaron-Wooi Yik will keep their fingers crossed to avoid landing in a group of death, as all non-seeded pairs will be distributed into groups randomly.
Other non-seeded combinations seen as major contenders include Japan's Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi, Indonesia's Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto, China's Liu Yu Chen-Ou Xuan Yi, and Taiwan's Lee Yang-Wang Chi Lin, the defending gold medallists.
Hoki-Kobayashi, in particular, is one pair Aaron-Wooi Yik would like to avoid at all costs, given their poor head-to-head record, with eight losses in ten encounters.
Bin Shen insisted that despite Aaron-Wooi Yik not being seeded, it doesn't make much difference because the pairs who have qualified for the Olympics, especially those in the top eight, are equally strong.
"For this Olympics, we are not thinking about avoiding anyone. I don't think even the top-seeded pair will find it easy to win against an unseeded pair," said Bin Shen.
"The most important thing is to focus on each match. Whoever comes, we will face them.
"As long as we know how to play and stay calm to overcome the challenges from our opponents, it will definitely help."
Bin Shen expressed confidence that Aaron-Wooi Yik can bring home the gold medal in Paris, provided they remain injury-free and maintain a calm focus on their performance.
Aaron-Wooi Yik, a bronze medallists at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, are among Malaysia's gold medal contenders in Paris.