Taiwan badminton Olympic gold medalists Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and Lee Yang (李洋) will set off Wednesday for Bali to compete in the three-tournament “Indonesia Badminton Festival 2021,” looking to regain the form that carried them to victory in Tokyo.

The three-event circuit in the holiday destination opens on Nov. 16 with the US$600,000 Super 750 Indonesia Masters, in which Wang and Lee are seeded third and will start their men’s doubles challenge against world No. 44 Yoshinori Takeuchi and Keiichiro Matsui of Japan.

Wang and Lee will also be seeded third in the US$850,000 Super 1000 Indonesia Open, being held Nov. 23-28, and finish the festival in the US$1.5 million BWF World Tour Finals starting Dec. 1.

The duo won Taiwan’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in the sport in Tokyo, but Lee told CNA on Monday that he suffered a lower back injury in Japan and had limited his tournament appearances since then to keep it in check.

Wang and Lee chose to represent Taiwan at the Thomas Cup in Denmark in mid-October and then competed in the Denmark Open the following week because it was in the same country, but they quickly returned to Taiwan to prevent Lee’s injury from getting worse, he said.

Competing in back-to-back tournaments and following disease prevention regulations will “definitely affect the rhythm of training,” Lee said, but he indicated there was no choice.

“We have to protect ourselves and others. At this difficult time, we will do our best to prepare for each match,” Lee said.

The duo won all three of their group matches at the Thomas Cup in October but Taiwan failed to advance out of the group stage and then was ousted in the second round of the Denmark Open by eventual winners Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan.

To get back to the top in Indonesia, Wang and Lee may have to contend with the top two seeded teams from Indonesia that it defeated in pressure packed situations at the Olympics as well as the in-form Hoki and Kobayashi.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel