The Chinese youth badminton team successfully defended its mixed team title at the 2026 BWF World Junior Championships in Cairo, Egypt, powered by a quartet of players from the Guangzhou Badminton Team, local media outlets reported.
Guangzhou Quartet Powers World Junior Championship Defense
Feng Yilang, Li Menghan, Zhang Weixi, and jointly-trained athlete Wei Yueyue helped anchor the national squad through a grueling six-discipline tournament. In the mixed team final against Malaysia, Feng and Li paired up in mixed doubles while Wei contested women’s doubles, securing a 2-1 team victory that sealed the defense of the world crown.
The tournament featured competition across mixed team, men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Across the events, the Chinese delegation collected two gold medals, one silver, and three bronze. Beyond the team gold, Feng and Li advanced to the mixed doubles final to claim a silver medal, while Feng teamed with Wei Jianzhen to secure a bronze in men’s doubles.
Immediate Return to Training Halls in Guangzhou
Following the dissolution of the national youth squad in Egypt, the Guangzhou contingent wasted no time returning to their domestic base. Just two days after arriving back in southern China, Feng, Li, and Zhang stepped straight onto the courts at the Guangzhou Badminton Team training facility.
Operating on a five-hour time difference from Cairo, the athletes faced lingering fatigue but pushed through intensive multi-ball sessions and physical conditioning. Zhang joined the men’s doubles group for speed drills on the track before shifting to the weight room under the direction of team conditioners. According to the coaching staff, the players requested the rapid return themselves, insisting they could not afford to lose a single day ahead of upcoming competitive assignments.
Coach Wei Kai recalled first seeing Feng and Zhang arrive at the team as 10-year-olds when they barely reached his waist. Now, both teenagers tower over him by a full head. Wei noted that the international competition served as a vital developmental milestone, sharpening both technical execution and competitive temperament after years of competing at provincial and national youth games.
Feng Yilang and Li Menghan Win Junior World Titles
For 18-year-old Feng Yilang, the Cairo tournament marked his second appearance at the World Junior Championships following a mixed team gold last year. Alongside the mixed team title and mixed doubles silver, Feng admitted to lingering frustration over the final point of the mixed doubles gold-medal match, where a desire to close out the victory led to a late reversal by opponents. He now turns his focus toward national second-team selection trials.
Teammate Li Menghan, also 18, experienced her debut junior world championship by capturing gold in the team event and silver in mixed doubles. Expressing pride in wearing the national jersey, she credited Guangzhou’s deep-rooted badminton infrastructure for her development. First-time international traveler Zhang Weixi spent nearly 20 days documenting his impressions of Cairo while maintaining a strict hotel-to-arena routine, eventually bringing home an Egyptian Sphinx souvenir alongside his team gold medal.
