Ahn Jae Chang becomes the new Korean Head Coach

Korea’s Joongang Ilbo reported today that Ahn Jae Chang had been named the new Head Coach of the Korean national badminton team.

Ahn, who comes to the job from his post as Head Coach of the Incheon Airport Skymons pro team, will take the helm of a troubled team and has a contract that runs until just after the Tokyo Olympics.  A former singles player who won the Canada Open in 1992, Ahn spent two stretches as a singles coach from the national team, the most recent one ending in 2014.

Former Korean Head Coach Kang Kyung Jin and his entire coaching staff were terminated following the Asian Games, their contracts having ended officially on the 23rd of November.  At the Korea Masters this week, even national team members are being coached courtside by their pro or university team coaches, but this is not unusual in Korea’s late autumn event.  Kang hit back late last month, giving a televised interview to SBS where he claimed that some of his player decisions for the Asian Games had been overruled by the BKA brass but it was he and his colleagues who were made to take responsibility.

The new Head Coach now has two weeks to assemble a coaching team in advance of the national team tryouts, which begin on December 18th.  The new coaches are expected to be hired by the 14th.  Korea also has 3 players qualified for the World Tour Finals, which runs from December 12th to 16th.  Coincidentally, both Son Wan Ho and Lee So Hee have already been playing for Ahn at the Skymons team.

[Editor’s note] Ahn Jae Chang told Badzine on Saturday, December 1st, that as he would be occupied with BKA business, the three players will be accompanied to Guangzhou by their pro team coaches.  This information was unavailable when the article was originally published.

Photo: Badmintonphoto