The 2013 Championships, which take place on August 5-11 at the Tianhe Indoor Gymnasium, will be the 20th edition of the tournament and the second to be staged in China after Beijing hosted the Championships in 1987.

After the draw there will be some brief presentations which will include an outline of the rules and regulations for the draw and the tournament.

More than 400 of the world's top players will arrive in Guangzhou, where hosts China will be hoping to replicate their dominance at the London 2012 Olympics and the 2011 World Championships also held in London, where Chinese athletes claimed gold in the five categories that will be contested at this year's World Championships.

Double Olympic gold medallist and four-time world champion Lin Dan will be looking to secure a fifth straight world title in the men's singles to continue the 29-year-old's remarkable record on the international badminton scene.

Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun (pictured top) also come into the tournament in good form as the current Olympic and world men's doubles champions.


In the women's singles, Olympic silver medallist Wang Yihan will be looking to retain the world title she won in London in 2011 after beating Cheng Shao-chieh from Chinese Taipei and is sure to be challenging for the top medal positions once again along with Li Xuerui, who lost out to Wang at London 2012.

The women's doubles will be one of the most hotly contested categories with China's Olympic gold medal winning pair of Zhao Yunlei and Tian Qing sure to face stiff competition from their opponents in that final Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa of Japan, as well as reigning world champions Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang.

Zhao will also be looking to repeat her London 2012 success in the mixed doubles, where she won gold playing with boyfriend Zhang Nan, which followed their victory in the 2011 World Championship final over British pair Imogen Bankier and Chris Adcock.

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