World Badminton Federation discusses ‘introduction of 15-point system’
It is assessed that it will be disadvantageous to Ahn Se-young, who has strong physical strength.
Archery remains the best in the world despite several rule changes.
Ahn Se-young decorated a spectacular finale by winning the King of Kings. ⓒ Xinhua=Newsis
Will the introduction of new regulations be able to prevent the dominance of world powerhouse Ahn Se-young?
Ahn Se-young had a perfect year this year, winning 11 times out of 15 competitions. She is on par with the record of 11 wins in a single season set by Japanese male player Kento Momota in 2019, and is the first female player to do so.
In addition, he recorded an astonishing winning percentage of 94.8% (73 wins, 4 losses) in 77 games this year, setting a new record that surpassed the 94.4% set by Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in men’s singles in 2022.
Meanwhile, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) is said to be discussing the introduction of the 15-point system, and attention is being paid to the background.
The goal of the 15-point system is that, unlike the existing ’21-point, 3-out-2-win system’, the team that scores 15 points first in each game wins.
If the rules are changed, there are concerns that Ahn Se-young’s play style, which shows tremendous power at the end of the set with a physical advantage at the forefront, will be disadvantaged as the score per game will be reduced by as much as 6 points.
This is also the reason why this discussion is being assessed as a de facto check to prevent Ahn Se-young’s dominance.
There is an assessment that the introduction of the 15-point system will be disadvantageous to Ahn Se-young, who has good physical strength. ⓒ Xinhua=Newsis
The rules had already been changed to check the dominance of Korean athletes in sports. Archery is a representative example.
Introduced at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and maintained until the 2004 Athens Olympics, the rule of each team shooting 27 shots was changed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics to require three people shooting two shots each four times for a total of 24 shots.
Then, starting from the 2012 London Olympics, the ‘set system’ was adopted in the individual competition and applied to the team competition in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro competition, with 2 points for winning a set, 1 point for a tie, and 0 points for losing.
Since the more arrows shot, Korea had an advantage, so the intention was to create a surprise with fewer arrows, which is similar to the introduction of badminton’s 15-point system that is currently being discussed.
However, Korean archery overshadowed the change in competition regulations by maintaining its position as the strongest, including achieving 10 consecutive wins in the women’s team event at the Olympics.
Ahn Se-young is also not at a disadvantage just because the 15-point system is introduced. In the long run, it can protect the player’s life because the physical burden is reduced.
Like archery, which maintained its place among the world’s best despite changes in regulations, adaptation is expected to be the key for Ahn Se-young in the end.
Meanwhile, BWF plans to finalize the introduction of the 15-point system through a vote by member countries at the regular general meeting held in Horsens, Denmark on April 25th (local time) next year. If the bill is passed, world badminton will face a new scoring system for the first time in 20 years since the 21-point system was introduced in 2006.
