PETALING JAYA: Malaysia have a tough job to win medals at the world junior badminton championships next month if the dominant performance of Japan in the Malaysian Junior International Series is anything to go by.
Japan swept four out of the five titles in Putrajaya yesterday.
They could have taken all five but Thailand’s Tanakorn Meechai-Fungfa Korpthammakit defeated a tired Shunya Ota-Kanano Muroya 14-21, 21-18, 21-12 in the mixed doubles final. Ota and Muroya had earlier won the boys’ and girls’ doubles titles.
Japan were so dominant that they made it a 1-2 finish in the boys’ and girls singles and doubles.
Malaysia’s best bet was Justin Hoh (pic) but the singles player withdrew from the semi-finals on Friday due to injury.
The world junior meet will be in Santander, Spain, from Oct 24-30 but Datuk Misbun Sidek’s charges will have to double up their effort if they harbour hopes of ending their title drought in the tournament that is making a comeback after two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Malaysia last won a world junior title through Goh Jin Wei (girls’ singles) at the 2018 edition in Canada and have fired blanks in the boys’ singles and doubles since the victories of Zulfadli Zulkiffli and Nelson Heg-Teo Ee Yi in 2011 respectively.
Japan alone will not be Malaysia’s challengers as Thailand, China, South Korea, Denmark, India will be sending their team in full force.
RESULTS
Boys’ singles: Sora Ogaki (Jpn) bt Yudai Okimoto (Jpn) 21-17, 21-12.
Boys’ doubles: Koya Iwano-Shunya Ota (Jpn) bt Seiya Inoue-Haruki Kawabe (Jpn) 21-17, 15-21, 21-15.
Girls’ singles: Kokona Ishikawa (Jpn) bt Tomoka Miyazaki (Jpn) 21-17, 17-21, 24-22
Girls’ doubles: Rui Kiyama-Kanano Muroya (Jpn) bt Maya Taguchi-Nao Yamakita (Jpn) 21-19, 21-17.
Mixed doubles: Tanakorn Meechai-Fungfa Korpthammakit (Tha) bt Shunya Ota-Kanano Muroya (Jpn) 14-21, 21-18, 21-12.
