Ahn Se-young (left), who was named BWF Female Athlete of the Year, poses with Seo Seung-jae, the Male Athlete of the Year. Photo = BWF SNS
Ahn Se-young (21, Samsung Life Insurance), recognized as the world’s best badminton player in 2023, aims for the perfect finale.
Ahn Se-young, ranked first in the badminton women’s singles rankings, was selected as ‘Female Athlete of the Year’ at the 2023 Badminton World Federation (BWF) awards ceremony held in Hangzhou, China on the 11th. She beat Chen Yufei (2nd place, China) and Akane Yamaguchi (3rd place, Japan), who were also nominated. Ahn Se-young, who was the first Korean player to receive the Rookie of the Year award at the 2019 awards ceremony, was crowned ‘Empress’ for the first time in four years.
Ahn Se-young participated in a total of 16 competitions from November last year to October this year and won the trophy 11 times. She has reached the top of the most prestigious competitions, including the All England Open in March, the World Championships in Copenhagen in August and the Asian Games (AG) in Hangzhou in October.
From 1998, when the Player of the Year Award was introduced, to 2007, only one person or one team was selected as the winner, regardless of gender or singles or doubles. In 2002, Kim Dong-moon (currently a professor at Wonkwang University) became the first Korean player to receive the award, and the following year, Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min (currently a professor at Korea National Sport University), who teamed up as a mixed doubles team, received the award together. Ahn Se-young continued the lineage after 20 years.
Ahn Se-young, who attended the awards ceremony wearing a black dress, enjoyed the moment her name was called with a unique roaring ceremony. He expressed his thoughts on the BWF website, saying, “It was not an easy year, but it was a perfect ending. It couldn’t be better than this.” She continued by saying, “I am still young. I want to achieve more than this.”
Ahn Se-young is enjoying the joy of holding the Female Athlete of the Year trophy. Photo = BWF website
Ahn Se-young’s 2023 is not over yet. They will participate in the BWF World Tour Finals, which opens in Hangzhou, China on the 13th. This is a competition in which 8 athletes (8 groups) from each event who achieved the best results during the season participate.
Ahn Se-young has already been recognized as the best player in 2023, but he desperately needs a good performance in the World Tour Finals. He suffered a ruptured right knee ligament in the Hangzhou AG women’s singles final against Chen Yufei and was in rehabilitation for over a month. Although he returned from the Kumamoto Masters last month, he lost to Chen Yufei in the semifinals, and in the next China Masters, he lost to 12th ranked Wang Zhiyi with a game score of 0-2 in the round of 16, failing to reach the podium for the first time this season.
Ahn Se-young’s unique agile movements were evaluated as dull, and her elaborate high clears and hairpins also became dull. It was a aftereffect of an injury. Meanwhile, Chen Yufei won the Denmark Open, French Open, and China Open, adding 40,800 ranking points after Hangzhou AG, reaching 101,646 points, moving up from 3rd to 2nd in the rankings. She trailed Ahn Se-young, who had 113,314 points, by 11,668 points.
Ahn Se-young must accumulate as many ranking points as possible in this World Tour Finals to secure first place. Her performance in the last competition of the year is also important for winning ‘Female Athlete of the Year’ for the second time in a row. Seyoung Ahn did not win any BWF tour competitions in November. She needs to regain her confidence as she has not been able to show off her skills since her injury.
Coincidentally, the World Tour Finals will be held in Hangzhou, where Ahn Se-young won the AG gold medal after fighting an injury. This is an opportunity to end 2023 well in the promised land and welcome 2024 with energy.
Reporter Ahn Hee-soo [email protected]
2023-12-12 22:40:21
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