On September 30th, the 2024 Yonex World Junior Badminton Championships kicked off in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. In the opening round of the mixed team competition, Hong Kong faced a challenging defeat against South Korea. Meanwhile, teams from Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand all celebrated victories against their opponents, marking a promising start to the tournament.
This year’s championships return to mainland China for the first time in 24 years, featuring both team and individual events, and introducing an exciting relay-style format for the team matches. Each match consists of ten contests—two each for men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles—with the overall score calculated based on the rotation of participants.
A total of 457 athletes from 40 countries and regions are competing in the team events, organized into eight groups labeled A through H.
In Group A, the Chinese team had a walkover against Ghana, who withdrew from the competition. The match between South Korea and Hong Kong was intensely fought, highlighted by impressive performances from Hong Kong’s women’s singles player Huang Yi and men’s singles player Lam Ka-Tao, who took an early lead with a score of 22:19 after the first two contests.
However, South Korea gained momentum in the third match with the mixed doubles pair of Yang Bing-Jian and Kim Tae-Yeon shifting the trajectory to 33:30. Following that, Kim Tae-Yeon partnered with Kim So-Hee for the fourth doubles match, extending their advantage to 44:38. From that point on, Hong Kong found themselves trailing, as South Korea maintained their lead and ultimately secured victory with a final score of 110:96.
“It was our first time dealing with this new format, and neither team felt completely comfortable, which made it a tight match,” said Hong Kong’s player Tang Chi-Hui in a post-match interview. “This experience is invaluable; competing against strong teams, no matter the format, is a fantastic opportunity for growth.”
In Group B, Chinese Taipei showcased their dominance, defeating Slovakia with a score of 110:56. In Group C, Malaysia effortlessly overcame Mongolia, 110:48. Over in Group F, Indonesia triumphed over Macau with a score of 110:58, while Thailand in Group H claimed victory against the Philippines, finishing at 110:78.
