(Xports News Reporter Kim Jeong-hyun) Ahn Se-young went to China. However, another badminton world number one team, Seung-jae Seo and Won-ho Kim (Samsung Life Insurance), was disbanded for a while.
Seo Seung-jae will not participate in the Asian Men’s and Women’s Team Championships due to injury.
Seo Seung-jae was excluded from the list of the 2026 Asian Men’s and Women’s Team Badminton Championships as he did not fully recover from a shoulder injury sustained during the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Malaysia Open (Super 1000) last month.
The Korean national badminton team, excluding Seo Seung-jae, headed to Qingdao, China, where the tournament was held, via Incheon International Airport on the 1st.
The competition will be held at the Kon Son Gymnasium in Qingdao from the 3rd to the 8th. The first competition was held in Hyderabad, India in 2016, and this year marks the 6th anniversary.
In this competition, which is held every two years, Korea’s men’s national team took third place in 2024, but the women’s national team did not participate in the Asian competition because it automatically qualified for the next Uber Cup finals by winning the previously held 2022 World Women’s Team Championship (Uber Cup).
If you advance to the semifinals of this competition, you will receive the right to participate in the Thomas Cup (Men’s World Team Championship) and Uber Cup, which will open in Horsens, Denmark on April 24.
Neither Korea’s men’s nor women’s teams have ever won the championship.
Korea’s best results in the men’s and women’s divisions of this competition are bronze medals (2016, 2018, 2022, 2024) and silver medals (2020, 2022), respectively. The men’s team has never even advanced to the finals. The women’s division has never won either. I have a strong will to write new history this year.
That is why it is evaluated that the Korean men’s and women’s national teams in this tournament are equipped with the most elite team.
The women’s national team consists of 10 members, including Ahn Se-young, Kim Ga-eun, Kim Min-ji, Kim Hye-jeong, Lee Yeon-woo (Samsung Life Insurance), Lee So-hee, Baek Hana, and Lee Seo-jin (Incheon International Airport), Park Ga-eun (Gimcheon City Hall), and Gong Hee-yong (Jeonbuk Bank).
The men’s national team was scheduled to feature 10 players, including Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae, Choi Ji-hoon (Samsung Life Insurance), Yoo Tae-bin, Jo Hyun-woo (Gimcheon City Hall), Park Sang-yong, Jin-yong (Yonex), Kang Min-hyuk (Armed Forces Athletic Corps), Ki Dong-ju (Incheon International Airport), and Cho Song-hyeon (Gwangju Bank).
However, the men’s national team is expected to weaken due to Seo Seung-jae’s departure.
In particular, with the disbandment of Seung-jae Seo and Won-ho Kim, the world’s No. 1 men’s doubles team, Won-ho Kim became ambiguous. With two other men’s doubles groups already in place, I was curious as to whether the national team’s coaching staff would create a new doubles group centered around Kim Won-ho.
The situation for the men’s national team is not easy because the competitiveness of men’s singles players is low on the world stage and the doubles team is not the most elite.
On the other hand, the women’s national team is the strongest of all time because it includes Ahn Se-young, who boasts the strongest form in badminton history, as well as the doubles team of So-hee Lee and Hana Baek, who won the women’s singles title at the World Tour Finals.
Moreover, China and Japan, which are considered the strongest rivals in Asia except Korea, are all competing in this tournament, so the Korean women’s national team is considered a strong candidate for the championship.
Home team China’s rivals who faced An Se-young in the women’s singles, including Wang Zhiyi (world No. 2), Chen Yufei (world No. 4), and Han Yue (world No. 5), are all not on the list. Switch (No. 1 in the world), the strongest men’s singles player, will also not participate, and the strongest women’s doubles pair, Ryu Seong-su and Tanning (No. 1 in the world), will not appear.
In fact, it is a second-tier military force. Gao Fangjie (ranked 11th in the world) in the women’s singles, who is 178cm tall, as well as the women’s doubles team Jaipan and Zhang Shushan, a gold medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics and winner of the World Championships four times, are competing against Korea.
Japan’s top stars, including Akane Yamaguchi (world’s No. 3) and women’s doubles Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto, all missed the event, appearing to be lacking strength.
Rather, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, etc. may defeat Japan or China and compete with Korea for the final ticket and championship in the tournament.
Meanwhile, as a result of the tournament group formation, the women’s national team will be in Group Z with Taiwan and Singapore, and the men’s team will be in Group A with Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Photo = Xports News DB
Reporter Kim Jeong-hyeon [email protected]
Related reading
