Team Korea gets a new Head Coach

Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported today that former All England champion Kang Kyung Jin has been named as the new Head Coach of the Korean National Badminton Team.

Kang, who won the All England men’s doubles title in 1997 with Ha Tae Kwon, has been coaching the national team since early 2009, although he spent one year in that period as the Head Coach of the junior national team.  He takes over from Lee Deuk Choon, who assumed the post in the spring of 2013.  The Yonhap report says that the new coach is to take over on January 1st, for a term that will extend up until the end of the Jakarta Asian Games, on October 30th, 2018.

The supporting cast of coaches include Park Tae Sang, Choi Min Ho, and Ra Kyung Min, with Kim Ji Hyun rejoining the staff to take charge of women’s singles.

The Korean coaches have also chosen their national team players for the coming season, in a qualification process that took place over Christmas.  Yonhap reports that, in addition to the 8 players who were just returning from Dubai as well as doubles veterans Yoo Yeon Seong and Kim Ki Jung – who all qualified automatically – 7 high school players were chosen, including 16-year-olds Baek Ha Na and Lee Yu Rim.  Badzine will publish the full list as soon as it is available.

Photo: Yves Lacroix / Badmintonphoto