HANOI INT’L 2011 – Koreans take first senior titles

Choi Hye In and Lee Dong Keun took their first titles at the senior level in Hanoi this weekend, while Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia split the remainder.

Choi, who had numerous promising results as a junior until her graduation to the upper ranks this year, was up for two golds in Vietnam but she and Kang Ji Wook, World Junior Championship runners-up in mixed doubles last year, settled for second again on Sunday.  Choi did find success in women’s doubles, however, together with Lee Se Rang, who had already picked up her first senior title in Singapore last year.

Thailand’s Patiphat Chalardchalaem, for his part, also had to be content with one gold, which came for him and mixed partner Savitree Amitapai by a narrow 21-19 20-22 23-21 margin over Choi and Kang.  The Thai came up short, however, in men’s doubles, where he and Nititphon Puangpuapech bowed to Indonesia’s Kurniawan/Windarto.

Malaysian youngster Tee Jing Yi took the women’s doubles title with a win over Youth Olympic gold medallist Sapsiree Taerattanachai while Korea’s Lee Dong Keun denied Singapore a northern hemisphere title for the weekend to go along with their New Zealand successes.  Lee beat Ashton Chen in three close ones to finally bag his first international title after some promising Grand Prix results last year.

Complete results can be downloaded from the Badminton Asia Confederation website HERE