When discussing badminton’s ‘GOAT (The Greatest Of All Time)’, one cannot leave out the name of Japan national team coach Park Joo-bong (59). During his time as a player, he built an unprecedented monumental tower, including 103 consecutive victories in men’s singles in domestic competitions and 72 times in international competitions. Since the 2004 Athens Olympics, he has been playing the role of a legend who sometimes competes against Korea and sometimes gives advice while taking the baton of the Japanese national team. Coach Park met with Sports Donga at the 38th Korea-Japan National Badminton Competition held at Seosan Citizen Gymnasium in Chungcheongnam-do on the 14th and 15th and said, “We are preparing with the goal of winning two gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the last tournament of our term.” revealed
●Open the golden age of badminton in Japan!
The history of the Japanese badminton team is divided into before and after the appointment of coach Park. Before the Athens Olympics, Japan was competitive only in women’s doubles, but was inferior in other events. In particular, 13 players participated in the Athens Olympics, and 12 players except Kaori Mori in the women’s singles were eliminated in the first round, and even Mori suffered a crushing defeat in the second round.
However, the Japanese national team has grown greatly while working with coach Park for 19 years. At the 2012 London Olympics, women’s doubles Fujii Mizuki-Kagi and Reika won a silver medal for the first time ever. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, women’s doubles Misaki Matsumoto and Ayaka Takahashi won their first ever gold medal.
Coach Park judged that the Japanese national team’s problems at the time were due to the ‘system’. He said, “At the time of my appointment to the Japanese national team, there was no training camp system, full-time coaching system, singles and doubles coaching system, let alone a standing army system.” Now, many improvements have been made, such as the opening of a training center,” recalled his early days in office.
●Ahn Se-young feels like an Olympic medal!
During the interview, coach Park encouraged the players of both countries by watching the match being played on three courts. In the men’s singles event, Cho Sang-yeop (ranked 179th in the world) beat Godai Naraoka (ranked 5th) with a set score of 2-0, calling it “impressive.” When women’s singles Natsuki Niidaira (30th) returned to the bench after the match, she even gave her advice on how to use her space in fluent Japanese.
He also spared no evaluations of the impressive players. Coach Park said to the Korean national team, “Women’s singles Ahn Se-young (2nd place) is definitely an Olympic medalist. Considering that Korea has not been strong in singles so far, this is good news,” he said. “The Korean national team has had ups and downs over the past 19 years, but recently the team itself has become stronger beyond individual strength. It seems that the atmosphere of the national team has also gained a lot of motivation and a desire to compete.”
●Dreaming of ‘Last Dance’ in Paris!
“GOAT” coach Park also has concerns. Currently, the Japanese national team is Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi (4th place) in men’s doubles, Akane Yamaguchi (1st place) in women’s singles, Chiharu Shida-Nami Matsuyama (2nd place) in women’s doubles, Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino (2nd place) in mixed doubles. Although the main members are competitive, Director Park judges that they are weaker than 10 years ago.
An example is the fact that only Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino won the bronze medal in mixed doubles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This is because the tournament was postponed for a year due to the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) pandemic, and the condition was not maintained at its best.
However, coach Park is aspiring to perform a splendid ‘last dance’ at the Paris Olympics, when his term of office expires. He said, “In Japan, the key players are not small. Considering the past when there were two or more world-class players for each event, the number of players has become shallow.” Explained. “I said in the past that I wanted to serve after returning to Korea for badminton in Korea,” he said. We are thinking of various forms of volunteering at our alma mater, such as talent donation.”
Seosan | Reporter Kwon Jae-min [email protected]
▲ Noh Sa-yeon, Lee Kyung-kyu’s attitude, “just do it as it never happened”
▲ Kim Jong-guk mentions retirement “Quit everything, gym in the US… ” (Missing Bird)
▲ BLACKPINK’s Jenny’s friend → dating a chaebol 2nd generation… unimaginable villain
▲ ‘Park Seong-gwang♥’ Lee Sol-yi, hot bikini body
▲ Lim Young-woong, “Anything you want” beyond the imagination of the ransom
▶ The true story of the entertainment scene / Backward attention! Star’s dizzying moment
▶ Star memes that only you can see, ‘Bot.Duck.Bang’ GOGO
– Copyrights ⓒ Sports Donga (http://sports.donga.com) Unauthorized copying and redistribution prohibited –
2023-04-18 09:12:26
#years #Korea #Japan #perspective #GOAT #Park #Joobong #Japans #badminton #team #coach #Nate #Sports
