Kuala Lumpur: After winning his Malaysia Masters title last week, Lee Chong Wei advanced 3 spots to World No. 2 in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings released on Thursday.
Lee Chong Wei also expressed his intention to recapture the World No. 1 position. In the latest rankings, Chen Long has 19,778 points advantage over Lee with 96,931 points while Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark was ranked No. 3 with 75,967 points, followed by No. 4 Kento Momota with 74,853 and Lin Dan in No. 5 with 74,277.
“It took a lot of strength, effort, and courage to rise up the rankings within such a short period of time, I am satisfied with the progress,” said Lee.
Lee’s world ranking plummeted to 180th in June 2015 due to an eight-month suspension by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Lee Chong Wei also acknowledged that not only would he face challenges from his traditional rivals such as Lin Dan and Chen Long in Rio, youngsters such as Kento Momota from Japan, Viktor Axelsen from Denmark and Kidambi Srikanth from India would also pose a serious threat of him winning the Olympics.
“I will play my best in those five to seven tournaments before Olympics in the hope of regaining the world number one spot,” said Lee after he was appointed as the brand ambassador for XOX Mobile on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Lee Chong Wei remained confident that his coaches Hendrawan and Tey Seu Bock would draw a good and steady game plan to prepare him for the quest to win Malaysia’s first ever gold medal in the 2016 Rio Olympic.
