More than 200 regional players including strong ones are competing in the Asian qualifying round of the World Badminton Mixed Team Championships in Ho Chi Minh City from February 19-24.
The events are called Robot Thomas Cup for men and Uber Cup for women.
Four men’s and four women’s teams will be selected from 14 men’s and 11 women’s teams for the final round in Indonesia. Defending champions China and hosts Indonesia will play in the final without competing in the qualifiers.
The 14 men’s teams in the Robot Thomas Cup sees are divided in four groups and Viet Nam share group B with the Republic of Korea and Singapore, who are deemed to be much stronger than the Vietnamese players. However, the Vietnamese rackets are seeking to do their best in competing the second position in Group B with Singapore for a quarterfinal berth, as the Koreans will obviously take the lead in the group.
In the Uber Cup, the 11 women’s teams are also divided into four groups, with Viet Nam, Taiwan and Hong Kong in group Y.
The main duty of Nguyen Tien Minh and Le Ngoc Nguyen Nhung, Viet Nam’s number-one male and female badminton players, in the tournaments is to gain more points to compete for a ticket to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Currently Minh ranks 39th in the world and Nhung stands 89th.
