Chinese shuttlers win 3 more titles

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After winning the girls' team event, China took another three individual titles at the Asian Junior Badminton Championship which ended here on Sunday.

Sunday's finals saw China-South Korea rivalry with the latter, who had already won the boys' team crown, bagging the remaining two titles on offer at the Senayan Tennis Indoor Stadium, Central Jakarta.

China triumphed in both singles matches with Wang Lin defeating compatriot Wang Yihan 11-4, 11-9 to take the girls' title and Lu Wicheng thumping Hong Ji Hoon of Korea 15-2, 15-3 to secure the boys' title.

Cheng Shu/Liao Jingmei contributed the third victory for the team in the girls' doubles with a 11-15, 15-12, 15-5 win over Korean pair Ha Jung En/Hong Soo Jung.

In the other ties the Koreans emerged the victors. Lee Young Dae/Ha Jung Eun came back to win the mixed doubles over Zhang Wei/Liao Jingmei 11-15, 15-18, 15-2.

Lee and his doubles pair Cho Gun Woo also won the boys' doubles title, also in three sets, over Zhang and Shen Ye 8-15, 15-8, 15-8.

Chairwoman of the Asian Junior Badminton Championship Mimi Irawan said the championship results did not take her by surprise.

"Chinese and Korean players prove that they are still the dominant forces in the championship," she said.

"Although we failed to reach the finals, Indonesian junior players have made good progress compared to previous years as they managed to advance to the semifinal," she said

Meanwhile, deputy chairman of the International Badminton Federation (IBF) Punch Gunalan of Malaysia announced a planned experiment of a new scoring system in a bid to make badminton more attractive.

The game will adopt a score of 21, compared to 15, and will be played in rally points like volleyball. The game will be a best of three.

"We will start introducing the new scoring at national championships all over the world, but not in the international event as yet," he said.

"The new scoring system will be discussed at the annual general meeting at the end of this year to decide whether it will be used or not in the international competition."

Earlier on the day, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, who is the incumbent chairman of Indonesian badminton governing body PBSI, was installed as the president of the Asian Badminton Confederation (ABC), replacing Kang Young Joong of Korea.