Goh V. Shem and Tan Wee Kiong are Officially World No.1

It looks like our national men’s doubles, Goh V. Shem and Tan Wee Kiong are on a roll this year! The pair had previously clinched the silver medal during a gut-wrenching final in the 2016 Rio Olympics but later on redeemed themselves after emerging as the champions in the Denmark Open back in October. Well, the good news doesn’t end there, because both of them are now officially ranked as the world’s no.1 men’s doubles!

Gif: Giphy

The shuttlers moved up the BWF (Badminton World Federation) world ranking yesterday after South Korea’s Lee Yong Dae-Yoo Yeon Seong were removed from the list. The Koreans’ removal comes after a retirement announcement made by Yong Dae during the Rio Olympic Games.

V. Shem initially wasn’t expecting to come out on top of the world ranking this soon as they still have both China and Hong Kong Opens to play in. “We were hoping to end the year on a high, but I did not expect it to happen this soon,” he told NST. “As for now, Wee Kiong and I will remain focused on maintaining our consistency and continue to give our best.”

An elated V. Shem also shared the good news with his followers on Instagram with this post.

World No.1 ??
A photo posted by Goh V Shem (@vshem) on Nov 10, 2016 at 12:41am PST

Besides the power duo, other Malaysians who are also in the BWF world ranking are our Olympians, Datuk Lee Chong Wei – No.1 (Men’s Singles) and Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Yin – No.4 (Mixed Doubles). Although Chong Wei came very close to securing Malaysia's first Olympic gold medal ever after losing to Chen Long, his ranking in the BWF has put him far ahead than the Chinese badminton player with an astonishing total of 93,503 points.

Image: BWF

We’d like to extend our heartiest congratulations to V. Shem and Wee Kiong for their outstanding achievement. We strongly believe that Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying will be the next Malaysians to be on top of the world rankings. Malaysia boleh!