KUALA LUMPUR: With honour and rewards as motivation, the nation's badminton team will start their Paris Olympic campaign on Saturday, hoping to fight for gold medals in their respective events.
However, former world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei, and women's doubles Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah will face tricky opening encounters.
World No. 4 Aaron-Wooi Yik will begin their men's doubles Group A campaign at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena in Paris against Englishmen Ben Lane-Sean Vendy.
Although Aaron-Wooi Yik have a 4-1 head-to-head record over Lane-Vendy, the Malaysians should not take the world No. 18 lightly.
In their last meeting, Lane-Vendy pulled off a shocking win over Aaron-Wooi Yik in the semi-finals of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, en route to winning a silver medal.
A defeat could end Aaron-Wooi Yik's hopes of reaching the next round from their group, which also comprises China's World No. 1 Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang and Canada's Adam Dong-Nyl Yakura.
Only the top two in each group in the doubles events will qualify for the quarter-finals.
Tang Jie-Ee Wei will open their account in Group D against the husband-and-wife duo Terry Hee-Jessica Tan from Singapore. World No. 9 Tang Jie-Ee Wei, runners-up at the Thailand Masters and Swiss Open this year, have a 1-0 head-to-head record against Terry-Jessica.
The Singaporean pair, the gold medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, are no pushovers, having made the semi-finals of this year's Malaysia Open in January.
A win will be crucial for Tang Jie-Ee Wei to finish at least runners-up in their group. China's World No. 2 Feng Yanzhe-Huang Dongping and American pair Vinson Chiu-Jennie Gai make up the group.
Former national player Roslin Hashim believes Tang Jie-Ee Wei have the pedigree to reach the Olympic final.
"Although Tang Jie-Ee Wei have not won (a title) this season, they have recorded upset wins over top pairs.
"They have the characteristics to be champions," he said.
Roslin also picked Aaron-Wooi Yik and men's singles player Lee Zii Jia to fight for medals in Paris.
Meanwhile, Pearly-Thinaah have a tough Group A opener against world No. 1 Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan from China on Saturday.
The world No. 13 Malaysians will start as underdogs, considering that they have only won once in seven meetings against the Chinese pair.
A more realistic approach for Pearly-Thinaah is to focus on their matches against Japan's world No. 6 Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara and Indonesia's world No. 9 Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.
Zii Jia will start his Group G campaign on Sunday against Sri Lanka's Viren Nettasinghe, while women's singles player Goh Jin Wei will face South Africa's Johanita Scholtz in Group H on Monday.