Defending men's champions Indonesia and women's champions Japan received favorable draws for this year's Badminton Asia Team Championships which will be held at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila from Feb 11-16.
Both champions are also the top seeds in their respective categories the championships which will serve as the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup qualifiers with the top four teams qualifying on merit. This year's Thomas Cup and Uber Cup will be held in Denmark in May.
The draw for the Badminton Asia Team Championships was conducted at the Century Park Hotel, Manila on Wednesday -witnessed by representatives from Badminton Asia, Philippines Badminton Association (Smash Filipinas), sponsors, members of the media and players.
In the men's draw, Indonesia is drawn in Group A together with fifth seeds India and host Philippines. China, runners-up at the last championships held in Alor Setar in 2018, is seeded third and drawn in Group B with Thailand (seeded 8th) and Hong Kong China (seeded 9th).
Japan is seeded No 2 and has seventh seeds South Korea and 12th seeds Kazakhstan for a company in Group D while Chinese Taipei (4th seeds), Malaysia (6th seeds) and Singapore (10th seeds) complete Group C.
In the men's team final in 2018 Indonesia outplayed China 3-1 for the title. In the semi-finals, China beat Malaysia 3-1 while Indonesia edged Korea 3-2.
Japan, 3-0 winners over China in the women's final in the last edition, is Group W together with Malaysia (8th seeds) and 9th seeds Hong Kong China. Second seeds China is in Group Z with Chinese Taipei (6th seeds) and Singapore (10th seeds).
The Koreans, semi-finalists in Alor Setar, are seeded No 3 and drawn in Group X with No 7 seeds India and 12th seeds Kazakhstan while fourth seeds Thailand, fifth seeds Indonesia and host the Philippines are in Group Y.
In the semi-finals, Japan gunned down Indonesia 3-0 while China beat the Koreans 3-1.
The top two teams in each group will advance to the knockout stage (quarter-finals). The seedings were based on Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings as of Jan 21, 2020.
THE GROUPS
MEN
GROUP A
Indonesia, India, Philippines
GROUP B
China, Thailand, Hong Kong China
GROUP C
Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, Singapore
GROUP D
Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan
WOMEN
GROUP W
Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong China
GROUP X
Korea, India, Kazakhstan
GROUP Y
Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines
GROUP Z
China, Chinese Taipei, Singapore
