ASIAN JUNIOR 2014 Mixed Team Final – China blanks Korea

China’s juniors showed what their last few rebuilding years have been for as they marched to the mixed team title at the Badminton Asia Under-19 Championships in Taipei, dropping just one match along the way.

By Don Hearn. Photos: Badmintonphoto and Gerald Jew (archives)

In the Asian Junior mixed team final in Taipei, China showed that they definitely emerged the strongest from the last round of graduates from the junior ranks.  Not four months ago, they were shut out of the Suhandinata Cup final in Bangkok but while Korea saw their entire winning line-up from that event graduate to the senior ranks on January 1st, China was able to field a team that already has plenty of experience in what is still the second last year of junior for most of them.

On Wednesday morning, China of course, chose to count on their World Junior Champion mixed doubles pair Huang Kaixiang and Chen Qingchen (pictured here after their win in Bangkok in November) to start off proceedings.  They had little trouble with Korea’s Choi Jong Woo and Asian Under-17 champion Kim Hyang Im, the youngest player in the Korean contingent.

Asian Youth Games gold medallist Lin Guipu was up next for the favourites and he also made quick work of Korea’s Seo Seung Jae.  Despite some disappointing outings since his win in Nanjing last August, Lin got the nod for his team over team-mate Zhao Junpeng, who was China’s only representative in the World Junior boys’ singles semi-finals in November.

Huang Kaixiang, the only 18-year-old in the Chinese line-up, teamed up a second time, in the boys’ doubles.  He and Zheng Siwei had given away China’s only match defeat of the competition when they lost to a Thai pair they had eliminated from last year’s individual event.

Huang and Zheng, of course, are now the overwhelming favourites to win the junior boys’ doubles titles this year, after finishing runner-up to their compatriots Li/Liu at both the Asian and World Juniors last year, not to mention at last month’s India Grand Prix Gold.  They saw off Korea’s Kim Jung Ho / Kim Jae Hwan (pictured) in straight games to seal for China its fifth Asian Junior mixed team victory.

There was no rest for the weary, either, as many of the team finalists were right back in action later in the afternoon in the individual event, which runs until Sunday.  They early staging of these junior championships, as well as the April slot for the World Junior Championships, are part of a pattern established in 2010 to complete these events, which will be used as qualifiers for the Youth Olympic Games this summer in Nanjing.

Mixed team final result: China 3, Korea 0
XD: Huang Kaixiang / Chen Qingchen beat Choi Jong Woo / Kim Hyang Im  21-7, 21-12
MS: Lin Guipu beat Seo Seung Jae  21-11, 21-16
MD: Huang Kaixiang / Zheng Siwei beat Kim Jung Ho / Kim Jae Hwan  21-17, 21-19
WS: He Bingjiao vs. Kim Ga Eun (not played)
WD: Chen Qingchen / Jia Yifan vs. Kong Hee Yong / Kim Hye Jeong (not played)

Click here for complete, detailed results