Loh Kean Yew becomes first Singaporean nominated for BWF Male Player of the Year award

Loh Kean Yew has become the first Singaporean to be nominated for the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Male Player of the Year award.

This year’s nominees were selected based on performances in the 2021 and 2022 season from Nov 1, 2021, to Oct 3, 2022. The award recognises the achievements of badminton and para badminton players in eight categories.

Other male player of the year nominees are Olympic and world champion Viktor Axelsen from Denmark and Asian champion Lee Zii Jia from Malaysia.

The award ceremony will be held on Dec 5 at Bangkok, in conjunction with the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2022 gala dinner.

Loh became Singapore’s first badminton world champion after winning the men’s singles final at the BWF 2021 World Championships, beating India’s Kidambi Srikanth on Dec 19.

The 25-year-old was also ranked the third-best men’s singles player in the world on the BWF’s world rankings on Nov 7, behind Viktor Axelson and Lee Zii Jia. Loh is the first Singaporean men’s badminton player to reach the top three positions in the world. 

Loh was also crowned Sportsman of the Year at the Singapore Sports Awards over cuesports player Aloysius Yapp. He is the second badminton player to win the award since Ronald Susilo in 2005.