Universiade hosts to field just one university team shuttler

The Badminton Korea Association (BKA) gave a preview of its badminton contingent for the 2015 Gwangju Universiade.  Of the eleven players who appear in photos of a BKA education session, only Kim Hyo Min is currently a member of a university badminton team.  The actual national team in Korea includes six men and three women who are currently affiliated with university teams but only Kim Hyo Min of the Korea National Sport University (KNSU) appears to have made the cut for Gwangju.  The other ten players are from corporate and municipal teams.  Japan, in contrast, revealed their twelve member team last month and all but three are currently playing for university teams.

KNSU is one of several universities in Korea with a long history of educating some of Korea’s top badminton players but in recent years, more and more top shuttlers are going straight from high school into the corporate team system.  This is perhaps illustrated by the fact that when Gwangju hosted the World University Badminton Championships in 2012, Lee Yong Dae was the only player who was not a member of a university team and in the Kazan Universiade in 2013, 3 out of the ten-member Korean contingent were on university teams at the time.  Under Universiade rules, all participants will provide confirmation of enrolment in post-secondary institutions.  This will mean graduate programs for some players.  Five members of the Korean team completed their four years as undergraduate university team members between early 2010, when Ko Sung Hyun graduated, and 2014, when Sung Ji Hyun did.

The badminton event at the Gwangju Universiade (July 6-12) is actually being held in Hwasun, which is the hometown not only of Lee Yong Dae, but also of Go Ah Ra and Yoo Hae Won.  The only Hwasun native who is currently both a member of the national team and of a university team, Macau Open semi-finalist Kim Dong Hoon, was not selected to play in the Universiade.

Korea’s Badminton Team for the 2015 Gwangju Universiade (unofficial): Ko Sung Hyun, Son Wan Ho (Gimcheon City Hall), Lee Yong Dae, Kim Sa Rang, Kim Ki Jung, Shin Seung Chan (Samsung Electro-Mechanics), Sung Ji Hyun (MG Saemaeul), Go Ah Ra, Yoo Hae Won (Hwasun County), Lee So Hee (Incheon Airport Skymons), Kim Hyo Min (Korea National Sport University), Jeon Hyeok Jin (Dong-Eui University)

• This article was amended on July 2nd, 2015, when the BKA finally made public its official Universiade roster, adding one more university team player.  At this time, the participant lists for other teams had not yet been divulged by the Gwangju Universiade Organizing Committee.