Hafiz Hashim returns to Malaysia this week a national sporting hero after Sunday's All England badminton triumph.

Hashim's 17-14, 15-10 victory over top seed and defending champion Chen Hong of China ended a 37-year Malaysian drought in the men's singles at the sport's most revered tournament.

It follows the 20-year-old's title success at last year's Commonwealth Games and earmarks him as a genuine contender for the world championships being held in Birmingham in May.

Hashim was unseeded here largely because the Games do not count towards world ranking points. He was ranked 46th but Sunday's success means he will leap to around 20.

In recent years, Malaysia has slipped into the shadow of China, Indonesia and South Korea but hopes are already high of a return to the days of the five Sidek brothers who campaigned round the globe with great distinction in the 1980s and 90s.

Families run strong through Malaysian badminton. Hashim's elder brother Roslin is a regular on the circuit and reached the semi-finals in Birmingham only to be knocked out by Chen.

Sunday's victory spelt revenge for the Hashim family honour though Roslin only saw the first set, obliged to leave early to catch a connecting flight home.

His text message on hearing the news read quite simply: "Congratulations."

As the new champion phoned home, nearby, as ever, was the man who spotted and nurtured the talent -- Misbun Sidek, one of the brothers five.

Now a coach, Sidek has greater cause than ever to celebrate his 43rd birthday on Monday. Back in 1986, when the tournament was held in the Wembley indoor arena, Sidek reached the final only to lose to Denmark's Morten Frost.

Ten years later his brother Rashid also reached the final but he too fell to a Dane, the former Olympic champion Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen.

Hashim's victory over Chen laid quite a few ghosts and could also herald a re-shuffle of the pecking order.

On the women's side, all four singles semi-finalists were Chinese and disturbingly for Europe, particularly Denmark and England, the semi-finalists in all the other events were from Asian countries.

Much work lies ahead to avoid a repeat at the worlds.