The news badminton fans were waiting for arrived on Tuesday (26 July) when the draw for the Olympic tournament was held in Rio. Arch-rivals and finalists in the last two Olympic Games finals, Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan, will not meet in a third Olympic final next month.

Malaysian two-time silver medallist Lee, top-seed at Rio 2016, and ¾ seed Lin of China, have been placed in the same half of the draw and can only meet in a potential semi-final showdown. Also in this half of the draw is Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen, Hu Yun of Hong King China, India’s Kidambi Srikanth and Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen.

Lin Dan, the David Beckham of badminton, set to light up Rio 2016 Olympic test event

The other half of the draw features the other ¾ seed, Viktor Axelsen, also of Denmark, alongside two-time world champion and second seed Cheng Long of China, Germany’s Marc Zwiebler, Hong Kong China’s Ng Ka Long and Son Wan Ho of the Republic of Korea.

In the women’s singles, top seed Carolina Marin of Spain has been drawn in the same half as Li Xuerui of China and Saina Nehwal of India, two players she has defeated in world championships finals. Kirsty Gilmour of Great Britain and Porntip Buranapraserstsuk of Thailand make up the other seeds in Marin’s half.

In the men’s doubles, group D appears to stand for death and will see second seeds Mohammed Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan face tough competition in China’s Chai Biao/Hong Wei, India’s Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy and Hiroyuki Endo/Kenichi Hayakawa of Japan.

Meanwhile in the women’s doubles, group B is shaping up to be the most competitive. Republic of Korea’s Jung Kyung/Shin Seung will face China’s Luo Ying/Luo Yu who were recently champions of the Dubai World Superseries Finals, Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen/Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Paula Lynn Obanana/Eve Lee of the United States.

As for the mixed doubles, Olympic bronze medallists Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen of Denmark are set to be engaged in an enthralling affair with BCA Indonesia Open champions Xu Chen/Ma Jin, Poland’s Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Zieba and Dubai World Superseries Finals champions Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock (Great Britain).

Top seeds Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei of China will face-off against Yonex All England Champions Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto (Indonesia), Hong Kong China’s Lee Chun Hei/Chau Hoi Wah and Germany’s Michael Fuchs/Birgit Michels.

The draw for the Olympic badminton tournament took place in Rio Centro – Pavilion 4, where the badminton events will be staged during the Games.

During the ceremony, between the doubles and singles draws, Badminton World Federation Secretary General Thomas Lund gave a statement regarding the status of the Russian badminton players due to compete at Rio 2016.

“We have had a rigid drug-testing programme, especially leading up to Rio 2016 and all four Russian athletes have been tested in and out of competition and their samples have been analysed outside of Russia,” Lund said.

“We believe the information that we have provided on these athletes lives up to the criteria for participation in the badminton competition at Rio 2016, but it is left for the IOC to validate. We have chosen to keep them in the draw, pending that validation.”

Badminton at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games starts on 11 August.