KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia face a tall order in redeeming their pride at badminton's World Junior Mixed Team Championships on Oct 17-22 in Santander, Spain.
The tournament is making a return after a three-year disruption by Covid-19.
Malaysia, seeded 12th, could not have asked for a tougher preliminary stage after being bunched with top seeds and defending champions Indonesia, Sweden and Latvia in Group A.
Only the group winners advance to the knockout stage while the runners-up will play in the 9th-16th classification matches.
In Kazan, Russia, three years ago, Malaysia suffered their worst-ever campaign, crashing out in the group stage for the first time since the tournament's inception in 2000 after a shocking 3-2 defeat to Hong Kong.
Malaysia eventually finished ninth, but that was not even a consolation given the nation's good track record in the competition.
Malaysia won the mixed team title in 2012 and finished runners-up in 2009, 2016 and 2017.
Considering the lack of international junior tournaments the past three years, with Europe being the exception, the tournament could turn out to be an open affair.
The seedings may not be a true reflection of the teams' strength as even China and South Korea, the two most successful nations with 13 and two titles respectively, were unseeded because they do not have players ranked high.
Instead, Ukraine, Spain, Germany, India, Denmark, the United States and England were seeded second to seventh respectively.
Malaysia will pin their hopes on shuttlers Justin Hoh, Eogene Ewe Eon and Fazriq Razif.
