Men’s doubles duo Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong will not compete at the prestigious All-England Championships after their late entry submission was rejected by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

"V Shem and Wee Kiong have overlooked the deadline and submitted their entry late. They sought our help to appeal and we assisted them immediately.

"We sent three emails to BWF but they insisted they would not entertain late submissions. Nowadays, BWF are very strict with the closing date, that’s understandable," Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) secretary Datuk Kenny Goh told The Star.

The All-England, taking place from March 11 to 15, is the first major tournament on the 2020 BWF World Tour Circuit and is classified as a Super 1000 event.

Missing out will be a huge blow to the independent pair, who now face an uphill battle to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in July.

Goh-Tan also did not submit their names on time for the German Open (March 3-8), while they were omitted by the BAM for the Asia Team Championships in Manila (February 11-16) in favour of Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi, who recently won the Thailand Masters.

With the Olympics qualification period ending on April 30, they will need to do well in the remaining tournaments that offer qualification points.

The world number 12 pair are eligible to compete at the Swiss Open (March 17-22), India Open (March 24-29), Malaysia Open (March 31-April 5), Singapore Open (April 7-12) and the Asian Badminton Championships in China (April 21-26).

The pair are ranked 12th on the race to Tokyo, and will need to make the top eight by the end of April to qualify.

It will be a big blow for Goh-Tan should they miss out on the Olympics, having won silver in 2016 and coming within a point of taking home gold.