The 2022 Badminton Asian Championships kicked off today in Manila, Philippines, with the qualifiers taking the lead, with two men's singles rookies Weng Hongyang and Lei Lanxi winning two consecutive matches in the qualifying round and successfully qualifying for the main tournament. It is worth mentioning that the two serve as off-court guidance is the husband of women's singles Olympic champion Li Xuerui and former men's singles national player Qiao Bin.
In this Asian Championship, Guo Yu sent four rookies to play in the men's singles event, and Weng Hongyang and Lei Lanxi both needed to start from the qualification tournament. Weng Hongyang previously participated in the Korean Open, played as a substitute, started from the qualifiers, and defeated Indonesia's famous Jonatan 2-1 in the final to win the championship, breaking the national badminton world badminton men's singles championship drought in the past three years. In this Asian Championship, Weng Hongyang was divided into Group B of the qualifiers, and the first round opponent was Hussein Shahid of the Maldives, who won easily 21-11, 21-9 to usher in the opening. In the second match, Weng Hongyang won more easily, and he defeated Myanmar's Feng Ni Pinain 21-10, 21-7 to advance to the main tournament.
Lei Lanxi had been training in China before, and the absence of Chen Long, Shi Yuqi, Lu Guangzu and Zhao Junpeng gave him a rare opportunity to participate in international competitions. In the first round of the qualifier Group D, Ray Lanxi defeated the Philippine player Jul Angelo Albo 21-17, 21-15, although he won the game, but he did not participate in the international competition for a long time, he was very nervous in the first match, the second game, he won the first set 21-16, the second set in the 9-1 lead, was beaten by the opponent a 4-20, lost 13-21, but in the decider Ray Lanxi won 21-11, the big score 2-1 victory Chen Yanze of Hong Kong, China, also successfully qualified for the main competition.
Today, the coach who gave Weng Hongyang and Lei Lanxi off-field coaching is the men's singles former national player Qiao Bin. Born in 1992, Qiao Bin retired in early 2019 and then returned to Beijing as a coach, was seconded to the national junior team at the end of that year, then entered the national second team auxiliary men's singles head coach, and then entered the national training team, and now he is the assistant coach of the national first team men's singles group. Previously, Qiao Bin also participated in the competition of the national feather coaching team, and now the Asian Championship has become the first game he has coached alone after taking office. Qiao Bin's wife is Badminton women's singles Olympic champion Li Xuerui, the two were licensed to marry in December 2019, and Li Xuerui gave birth to a son in May 2021, and the two were promoted to parents. However, due to the training competition with the national team, Qiao Bin did not have time to accompany his family, but fortunately, his wife Li Xuerui was very supportive of him, so that he could coach in the team with peace of mind.
After Weng Hongyang and Lei Lanxi advanced to the main match, there will be four national featherweight players in the first round of men's singles, but their signing luck is not very good, except for Weng Hongyang, the other three opponents in the first round are very strong. Weng Hongyang played against Singapore's Zheng Jiaheng in the first round, Lei Lanxi against the No. 8 seed of the tournament, Japan's Changshan Kantai, Li Shifeng's first round opponent was the No. 5 seed of the tournament, India's Lakshya, and Sun Feixiang will challenge the No. 3 seed of the tournament, Malaysia's Li Zijia.