Ahn Se-young won the under-17 women’s singles title at the 2017 Miryang Woncheon Yonex Korea Junior Tournament. Yonex Korea
Could a second Ahn Se-young be born? The international junior competition that produced Korean badminton stars will be held again this year.
The ‘2023 Miryang Wonwon Yonex Korea Junior Open Badminton Championship’ will be held at Miryang Badminton Stadium in Gyeongnam from the 27th to December 3rd. It is the only international junior competition approved by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) in Korea.
About 1,040 players from 11 countries, including badminton powerhouses Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia, will participate. Men’s and women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles competitions are held for 19-year-olds, 17-year-olds, 15-year-olds and 13-year-olds and under.
Originally, the roots of this competition were the ‘Woncheon Bae Elementary School Badminton Competition’, which was held for 21 years since 1994 with the title of the competition being ‘Woncheon (原川)’, the nickname of the late Chairman Kim Deok-in, founder of Dongseung Trading Co., Ltd., a Yonex Korea brand. It has been held as an international competition since 2017.
Ahn Se-young, the world No. 1 woman who became the first Korean player to win the singles title at the World Championships, is also from this tournament. Ahn Se-young has emerged as the biggest star in Korean sports thanks to her gold medals at this year’s prestigious All England Open and Hangzhou Asian Games. Along with Se-young Ahn, Seung-jae Seo (Samsung Life Insurance) and Sol-gyu Choi (Yonex), who won men’s doubles and mixed doubles gold medals at this year’s World Championships, also went through this competition.
Kim Min-seon won the under-17 championship at last year’s Miryang Wonwon Yonex Korea Junior Competition. Yonex Korea
This year, Kim Min-seon (Chiak High School), winner of the under-17 girls’ singles title at last year’s tournament, is dreaming of becoming the next Ahn Se-young. Kim Min-seon is the younger of twin sisters who were considered badminton prodigies. She was the runner-up in the Wonwon Yonex Korea Open in the under-13 women’s singles in 2018 and the under-15 women’s singles in 2019, and she reached the top in the under-17s last year.
Kim Min-seon is on the rise this year, taking second place in the women’s singles at the Netherlands Junior Open and winning the women’s high school singles title at the Association’s Long-Term National Competition. However, Min-seon Kim will only compete in singles this year. This is because her older sister Kim Min-ji, who has been with her on the women’s doubles winning streak since she was 13 years old, will not be attending.
In the men’s division, Cho Hyeon-woo (Seoul Physical Education High School) is raising expectations. This year, he ranked 3rd in the men’s singles at the East Asian Youth Tournament in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and 1st in the men’s high school singles during the Korean Middle and High School Federation’s presidential term. At the Wonwon Yonex Korea Open, he won the men’s under-13 singles title in 2018 and the under-17 men’s doubles title last year. This year, he will challenge for the top spot in men’s singles under the age of 19.
Kim Cheol-woong, CEO of Yonex Korea, the title sponsor of the competition, said, “Continuous youth development is an asset and competitive edge of Korean badminton. Yonex Korea will continue its commitment to youth development since its founding and will not spare any support for the development of Korean badminton.” He said. He continued, “I hope you will watch with much interest and support to see how much the youth players will grow in this competition.”
The finals of this competition, which will be held on December 3, will be broadcast on SPOTV.
2023-11-23 21:34:20
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