KOREA SUMMER CHAMPS – Any which way Yoo can

Korea’s top badminton players have been racing through the summer championship this week.  Held in Hwasun, hometown of Head Coach Kim Joong Soo and stars Lee Yong Dae and Cho Gun Woo, the tournament will finish on Saturday just hours ahead of Korea’s first World Cup match.  These fine athletes may be labouring in obscurity as far as the local public are concerned but they still put on a show inside Hwasun’s Hanium Gymnasium. Asian Champion Yoo Yeon Seong and Uber Cup heroine Ha Jung Eun were just two who titled on the penultimate day of the event.

Photos by Don Hearn, live from Hwasun.

Yoo Yeon Seong kept his men’s doubles winning streak alive.  After bagging the titles in the Swiss Open with Ko Sung Hyun and the Asian Championships with Cho Gun Woo, Yoo was back with Suwon City teammate Kim Dae Sung and the pair followed up their national championship from December with a summer title in the pro division, beating Hwang Ji Man / Han Sung Wook.  Yoo and Jung Youn Kyung (pictured above) couldn’t make it past the semis in mixed doubles, though.  They fell to Han Sang Hoon / Jung Kyung Eun (pictured below).

Asian Champion Cho Gun Woo made an early exit from the men’s doubles competition and fellow Hwasun native and Asian Junior Champion Choi Seung Il (pictured above, on the right) was stopped in the high school semi-finals but Choi’s partner Gu Mu Nyeong (left) beat Youth Olympic-bound Kang Ji Wook (pictured below) to enter the high school singles final.

Ha Jung Eun had already disposed of regular partner Lee Kyung Won and in the pro women’s doubles final, Ha and Park Sun Young shut down twin towers Kim Min Seo and Lee Hyo Jung (pictured below) to take the title.

All three of Korea’s Lin Dan-beaters were in action in the semi-finals but while Park Sung Hwan (pictured above) made it past Hwang Jung Woon, Choi Ho Jin (below) was no match for re-re-retired veteran Lee Hyun Il.

The University Division men’s doubles final saw regular partners and high school classmates Shin Baek Cheol and Kim Ki Jung go head to head.  Kim and Jung Jung Young (pictured) took the title after a controversial line call that sent the match’s third game into extra points.