Too bad even Livescore is not featuring this event LIVE! It would have kept us all badminton forummers really day and night with these 2 events (KLRC World Junior & French Open) happening on the same dates. Anyway, congrates to MAS for winning the MX title.
Many congratulations to our young XD players...Lim Khim Wah/Ng Hui Lin!!! I hope that they will keep improving and have a good start to their senior career!
We should have kept mum about their chances of winning...put too much pressure on them It would be better if they just played normally without any pressure Anyways, credit to all the winners
Good for you Would you mind giving some feedback or comments regarding the match between MAS XD and ENG XD?
i think gabby and chris (ENG) can only play one style, strong attacking but not very mobile/versatile and the malaysians are always going to be better at technique, they just "keep digging in" with the game, managed to win the second set, and so the english pair can't keep winning with the same style into the third set so the malaysians win. i'm so happy wang lin won! didn't see any of the boys/girls doubles
The Malaysians only just pip them though. Glad to know there are actually some potential in the English camp. If someone can beat Wang Lin in the junior stage, I would really like to know who. Only Xing Aiying and Saina Nehwal may do it.
their generation of english players is very promising...i should know, i'm in the age group below but i don't play the level of international tournaments they do. i got to adult rank 60 last year when i was 16, haven't decided if i want to keep playing, go full time, concentrate on university etc. one of the girls wang lin played called Panouga Riou, is 15 and should be very good. she's half thai, half english, i think she got to quarer-finals of the adult welsh open last year, maybe she can be in the top ten when she is older.
KLRC World Juniors: Gold Medal for Malaysia in Mixed First up on finals day at The Trusts Stadium in Waitakere, New Zealand, was the mixed doubles, featuring the only appearance today for both England and Malaysia. This was always going to be a hard one to pick, but what an exciting match to get the final day started. Was it going to be the English who hadn’t been in a final at the world juniors for approx 15 years or the Malaysians who hadn’t claimed a medal in the teams and were determined to take home a gold medal? By Lynne Scutt, Badzine Correspondent Live in Waitakere. Photos: Lynne Scutt (Live), Badmintonphoto (Archives) It had been a long 10 days of exciting and fantastic badminton and we were finally at the business end of the tournament to determine who would be the best junior players in the world. The biggest crowd of the tournament was in to see the world's best juniors in action and they certainly weren’t disappointed. China, England, Malaysia, Korea and Japan were all represented today but the biggest support from the crowd was for the Chinese players The mixed doubles final started nervously for both pairs but it was the English who took the early lead and were ahead at the first break. English Gabrielle White was very quick at the net and Chris Adcock was very fired up and, with his height, was getting great attacking angles. The Malaysians Lim Khim Wha and Ng Hui Lin (pictured), took a while to settle into the game and were making a few easy errors but they did manage to catch up to the English only to let them get ahead again. The Asian side made another comeback to level at 20-all. It was point for point and both teams were battling hard but it was the English who held their nerve and won the first game 25-23. Although the Malaysian’s were unlucky not to take the first game, they came out stronger in the 2nd and started to get into their work but again Adcock and White (pictured) were not going to let the Championship slip away. There were a number of unforced errors throughout the game but also some fast and furious rallies keeping the crowd enthralled. The English led 19-15 in the 2nd game, 2 points away from the GOLD medal, but the Malaysians held tough and looked calm while they slowly crept their way up to even the game at 19-all. The English did serve for the match at 20-19 but were unable to win the point and the Malaysians came through to win 22-20. The 3rd game was even the whole way through. Nerves were still obvious but there was a lot at stake. Ng Hui Lin was having a great game and she started to dominate more with Lim Khim Wha doing a great job behind her. The rallies were tense till the end but it was the Malaysians finishing the match off with a great shot leaving Adcock lying on the ground in disbelief that they had let this one slip away. The Malaysians were so happy with the gold medal and afterwards Hui Lin Ng dedicated her win to her parents, who had supported her all through her badminton and were in New Zealand to see her win her gold medal. Both Ng and Lim said they were happy to win as it was a good way to finish their World Junior Event.
My expectations as a Malaysian fan: I expected Arif to do well, but not well enough to beat Tago. Furthermore, he was carrying an injury. I thought Tago would win the whole thing, but Chen Long is truly formidable from what I saw during the Asian Juniors in KL. So, it's not that big a surprise. I think Tago and Chen Long will advance well into the senior ranks. Arif too, although a bit short. I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes a doubles player, but it's the singles department that is found lacking. We'll see how it goes. Same for Lydia Cheah. I have high expectations of her, but I don't give her much chances against Wang Lin. It's a good foundation to build on. She is rather tall, which is a nother plus. I wonder how old Lydia is now. Will she be available for another World Juniors? Rather disappointed that Lim/Mak lost to the Koreans in the semis. At the beginning of the tournament, I gave them a 50% chance of grabbing title. But from nowhere, the Koreans turned out to be eventual winners. It'll be interesting to see how their futures turned out. At the very least, China has a pair to build on for their MD. The Koreans (and don't forget the likes of Lee Yong Dae and Cho Gun Woo are still very young) will be a force to be reckoned with. Good to see a Malaysian pair in the girl's doubles semis. As usual, China has to win this one, but they are not totally dominating it, so it's not so boring. I expected Tan/Woon to win this one. I mean they are supposed to be Malaysia's #1 XD pair, aren't they? In a twist of events, it turned out that another Malaysian pair won it. It should not be that surprising because after all, Lim/Ng are the second seeds. Nevertheless, I am a bit surprised, pleasantly.
I am really disappointed with Wee Kiong/Khe Wei too, they have gained BIG match exposure, but somehow can't even win a title in WJC... There must be too much burden of lifting the sole MAS flag in the past for them at SS, although many never expected them to win... Rexy should grounded them into feet and stop sending them to SS, instead they need to regain their confidence by doing well in GP/Satelite tournament...
Who needs live scoring when there is a live video feed from planetstream.tv ? The link was on Badzine's homepage and on the official tournament website all week. I realize the sound was almost always missing but at least you could see the action.
KLRC World Juniors: China Takes 3 Golds As expected, the Chinese came out on top in the medal tally for the KLRC World Junior Championships. They dominated in the team event and were represented in 4 out of the 5 finals today, three of these against Korean opponents. By Lynne Scutt, Badzine Correspondent Live in Waitakere Photos by Lynne Scutt (Live) and Badmintonphoto (Archives) Wang Lin from China, the 3rd seed, went into the match as heavy favourite over smaller opponent Bae Youn Joo, the 10th seed from Korea. Wang hadn’t been really pushed all tournament and hadn’t even come close to dropping a game in any of her matches. Bae, on the other hand, had battled her way to today’s final by beating Hung Shih Han of Chinese Taipei in 3 games and 2 other Chinese players, one being the 2nd seed in the semi final. Wang (pictured right) was just too fast and consistent. Bae gave it everything in the first game but couldn’t break through Wang. Her long semi-final match caught up with her as Wang wore her down to claim the gold medal in just 36 minutes, 21-16, 21-15 to the delight of the large Chinese support in the crowd. Next up was the boys' singles, a matchup between the 2006 and 2007 Asian Junior Champions Tago Kenichi of Japan and Chen Long of China (pictured left). There was great anticipation for a huge battle between these two but it ended just after 32 minutes. Chen used his power and height to his advantage and didn’t give Tago any easy points. There were some great rallies but Tago was obviously trying to play more of a net game and was forced into many errors. When Chen finally won the game 21-16, 21-14, he fell to the ground in celebration then got up waved to the very loud crowd. The Chinese no.2 seed had been unbeaten all week and dominated the boys' singles competition. He looked very happy and satisfied when he got up on the podium to receive his gold medal. With China on a roll, it was now the turn of the unseeded girls' doubles pair, Xie Jing and Zhong Qianxin to have an upset win over the 2nd seeds from Korea, Yoo Hyun Young and Jung Kyung Eun. The first game saw a number of long rallies and great defense by both pairs. The lead changed hands many times but it was the Chinese who took the 1st game 21-18. The Koreans weren’t about to hand it to them and were fired up for the next game. They attacked more and looked like they had worked out the Chinese weaknesses and won the 2nd game 21-10. It was now all even and it was the turn of the Chinese to get on top and they quickly got out to a good lead that the Koreans never could get back. Xie and Zhong were too good in the end for Yoo and Jung and took the 3rd game 21-15 and the gold medal. They had beaten the top 2 seeds to win the gold and deserved the Championship title.
CHN really dominates this edition of WJC, won team event and 3 individual titles. Next, we can see how the world junior champ entering senior competition, will they shine?
Gold for Korea!! Controversial End to Junior Championships The last match of the KLRC 2007 World Junior Championships was the boys' doubles between top seeds Li Tian and Chai Biao of China and Chung Eui Seok and Shin Baek Choel from Korea. The Chinese were hot favourites over their unseeded opponents - even if the Koreans had taken to 3 games in the team final - and looked very confident going into the match, but the Koreans weren’t to be intimidated and took it to the higher-ranked pair. Story and Photos by Lynne Scutt, Badzine Correspondent Live in Waitakere Shin and Chung had a hard road to the final. They had beaten the 6th-seeded Danes in the last 16, the 4th-seeded Chinese in the quarter-final, which they won 21-18 in the 3rd and the 2nd-seeded Malaysians in the semi-final. It was a great effort to even get there. The first game was very even, going point for point, but the Chinese players (and officials) got a little rattled with a couple of service faults been called on them. This seemed to fire up Li and Chai and they held on to win the first game 26-24. The rallies in the 2nd were no different, with some tactical net play and great attacking by both pairs. The crowd was really getting behind the Chinese pair but this didn’t put off the Koreans and after another couple of service faults, they crept ahead of Li and Chai and it remained that way till the end of the game as Chung/Shin won it 21-19. The Chinese were now quite upset with the service fault calls and even the crowd was getting behind their players with support. In the background, the Chinese management, through a translator, was querying these faults with the tournament referee. They were told that the service judge was making correct calls and that they needed to accept it. The third game was exciting from start to finish with some amazing badminton and players diving all around the court, but the Korean pair kept their cool and just frustrated the Chinese with great defense. With a couple more service faults and even a receiver fault against the Korean player, Shin and Chung established a lead of a few points. Even through the interruption of the tournament referee being called onto the court over the fault service calls, they stayed composed and managed to hold onto that lead and won the 3rd game 21-15. Both players fell to their knees in celebration and were embraced by their coach and teammates. But this wasn’t to be the end of the controversy. The Chinese coach and interpreter walked onto the court to face the service judge and obviously explain their disapproval of his calls. The referee then removed them from the court after quite a lot of debate. Chinese officials debated behind the court for a long time afterwards but it was all over and the Korean team had won the gold medal. At the medal presentations, Li Tian was visibly upset by the loss, and was consoled by his partner Chai Biao. Then, quite disrespectfully, Li left the podium, causing his partner to follow him and leaving the gold and bronze medalists standing there. A great day of exciting badminton to finish the Championships.
RE: Gold for Korea!! Controversial End to Junior Championships it was indeed very controversial end. Actually I was furious when I watched this match live online. The chinese pair had been called 8-9 service faults during the whole match. I watched tons of professional badmitnon games these years, I have never, ever seen things like this happening before. The service judge always caught chinese pair serve above the waist. I could not believe it! These two chinese boy are very tall, Li Tian is at least 1.80 meters with Chai Biao is even higher, mabye 1.85 meters at least. How on earch could they serve above the waist all the time? I watched them play in the team final competition against this same Korean pair too. As far as I recall, they were never called a service fault during that game. And the chinese pair beat the korean quite comfortably even with the first game down. By the way, the Korean pair was never called a single service fault in the boy's double final. I really doubt if there is any secret plot in this. Maybe someone does not like chinese domination in badminton. But come on, train hard to change this. Do not change it by doing things like this! The players are innocent!!! They train hard for so many years to get this golden chance to win the gold, but it was simly deprived of by the service judge! The chinese pair did not just lose 8-9 points by the serive faults, they were mentally destoryed, as anyone can easily tell. They could not play their normal games at all. What a shame!!!
