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| Officials of Badminton Asia and the Philippine Badminton Association as well as the coaches of the Philippine national men's and women's badminton teams pose during the press conference for the Badminton Asia Manila Team Championships 2020 to take place at the Rizal Memorial Stadium on February 11-16, 2020. (Image Source: Dugout Philippines) |
Smash Pilipinas, the country's national badminton team, is all set to play with the top-ranked players in the world from eleven other countries in the region for a chance to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the Thomas and Uber Cup in Aarhus, Denmark on May. And judging by how the fate of the twelve participating nations is known, it would seem that the ninth seed in the tournament received a somewhat favorable draw as the Filipino men's badminton players will take on top seed Indonesia and fifth-ranked India in Group A while the women will figure in Group Y along with fellow Southeast Asian squads Thailand and Indonesia.
The national men's badminton team consists of Jopet Escueta, Ariel Magnaye, Alvin Morada, Solomon Padiz Jr., Paul John Pantig, Ros Pedrosa, Arthur Salvado and Lanz Zafra with Ronald Magnaye as their head coach while headlining women's badminton for Smash Pilipinas under head coach Ian Mendez are Nicole Albo, Sarah Barredo, Mika De Guzman, Geva De Vera, Ysay Leonardo, Chanelle Lunod, Bianca Carlos and Thea Pomar. These teams have felt short in their chances of winning gold for the Philippines in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, but the head coaches assure that they will give their opponents a good fight in front of their countrymen.
2018 Badminton Asia Team Championship men's runner-up China headlines Group B and will be joined by Thailand and Hong Kong while Group C will consist of Chinese Taipei, Malaysia and Singapore. Powerhouse Japan leads Group D but without world number one Kenzo Momota who is still recovering from injuries he sustained from a vehicular accident late last year and slotted in the group are India and Kazakhstan. On the women's draw, defending women's champion Japan is slotted with Malaysia and Hong Kong on Group W while Korea, India and Kazakhstan will wage war in Group X. Finally, duking it all out in Group Z are China, Chinese Taipei and Singapore. The top two teams in each group will move on to the knockout quarterfinals while the final four will punch their ticket to the Thomas And Uber Cup.
Even though Momoto remains out of action, the rest of the world's best are sure to take part in the biennial tournament. These include no. 2 Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei, number 5 Anthony Ginting and number 7 Jonathan Christie of Indonesia, number 9 Ka Long Angus Ng of Hong Kong and number 10 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan for the men's. On the other hand, also joining in on the action are the top seven female shutters in the world namely China's Yu Fei Chen, Chinese Taipei's Tzu Ying Tai, Japanese duo Akane Yamaguchi and Nozomi Okuhara, Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon, India's Pusarla Sindh and China's Bing Jiao He.
The Badminton Asia Manila Team Championships 2020 is supported in the Philippines by Resorts and Leisure World Corporation, MVP Sports Foundation, PLDT-Smart Communications, TV5 and Cignal. ESPN5, the sports arm of TV5, will be bringing every piece of badminton action inside the Rizal Memorial Stadium to a wider audience through its television and digital media platforms. For PLDT-Smart chairman and CEO Manny V. Pangilinan who has been supporting Philippine badminton for the last decade, the country's hosting of a prestigious international sporting event anew is in line with MVP Sports Foundation's advocacy of nation-building through sports where positive values promoted through sports can help improve people's lives.
