World No. 1 Chen Long is among ten of the world’s best players that will participate in the 2016 Malaysia Super Series Premier which is scheduled to take place from April 5-10 at the Malawati Stadium in Shah Alam.
Chen Long, along with two other Chinese stars, Lin Dan and Tian Houwei are among some of the big names that will take part in the prestigious tournament which offers a prize money up to $550,000 (RM2.29 million).
Badminton Association of Malaysian’s honorary secretary Ng Chin Chai said the tournament, which features 5 events – men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles – will be joined by World No. 2 Lee Chong Wei.
According to Chin Chai, the tournament will act as a platform for the national players to collect more points in order to gain a spot for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.
“The draw for the tournament will take place on March 13 and the reason Malawati Stadium was chosen to hold this event is because Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil is still under renovations for the 2017 SEA Games.
“The cash prize this year increased by 10% from last year, and it is expected to increase to $600,000 (RM2.5 million) next year,” Chin Chai said as quoted by Utusan Malaysia.
The 53 year-old secretary also said that the association will not be able to reveal the name of the new sponsor for various reasons and will release that information on March 21.
Maybank have been BAM’s main sponsor since 2011 after signing a seven-year contract, but the contract was terminated due to a couple of disagreements from both parties.
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