Bangkok: China, who bagged all five Asia Junior Championships individual titles in Bangkok last year, was able to complete another clean sweep in the 2016 edition on Sunday.
China has swept all titles in the 2000 Kyoto edition, where Lin Dan, Yu Jin, Sang Yang/Zheng Bo, Zhang Yawen/Wei Yili, Zheng Bo/Wei Yili took home boys’ singles, girls’ singles, boys’ doubles, girls’ doubles and the mixed doubles titles respectively.
The badminton powerhouse swept the titles again last year with Lin Guipu, He Bingjiao, He Jiting/Zheng Siwei, Du Yue/Li Yinhui, and Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen winning in all individual categories and the mixed team category. The 2015 edition was the first time anyone has swept all titles since Badminton World Federation (BWF) merged the boys and girls team events into a mixed team event in 2006.
Chen Yufei who currently ranked World No. 37 in the BWF ranking, and the runner-up at last year’s Indonesia Masters Grand Prix Gold, had a good one day rest after she was given a walkover by her opponent, Kim Ga Eun of Korea in the semi-finals on Saturday. The opening set went into an absolutely nail-biting game when Chen barely scraped past Gregoria Mariska of Indonesia by 2 points, winning 25-23. Chen then went on to win the second set comfortably with 21-14.
Little known Sun Feixiang of China who has been undefeated throughout the team and individual competitions, had little trouble disposing Lee Chia Hao of Taiwan 21-13, 21-15 to take home the boys’ singles crown.
He Jiting who partnered Zheng Siwei to win the boys’ doubles title last year, managed to enter into the boys’ mixed doubles and boys’ doubles finals. He and Du Yue fought back from dropping a set to see off Kim Won Ho/Lee Yu Rim of Korea 21-12, 19-21, 21-19 in the mixed doubles final. However, in an all-Chinese boys’ doubles final, He Jiting and Tan Qiang went down to Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong 21-12, 21-17.
After winning the mixed doubles title, Du Yue who won the girls’ doubles last year, was able to win her third Asian Junior title late Sunday when she and Xu Ya defeated Ni Bowen and Zhou Chaomin 21-15, 21-16 in 33 minutes.
