Historic change for Team China announced in Korean media

Korean daily the Donga Ilbo reported today that Kang Kyung Jin, former Head Coach of the Korean national badminton team, would be signing a contract on Tuesday to join the […]

Korean daily the Donga Ilbo reported today that Kang Kyung Jin, former Head of the Korean national badminton team, would be signing a contract on Tuesday to join the coaching staff for the Chinese national team.

Donga points out that this is a historic turnabout for the badminton superpower as they have never before hired a foreign coach in an official capacity for their national team.  The news comes just a week after mighty China was held to a solitary title at the World Championships for only the third time since the nation began sending teams to the event.  The last time China emerged with just one title was in 1995.  Unlike the badminton programmes in Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, India, England, and especially Japan, which have continuously sought the expertise of international coaches, China has remained proudly committed to a reliance purely on homegrown coaching talent.

Kang was last in the headlines in the autumn of 2018, when he went on television to make some revelations about some unpopular dealings by the (BKA) after he and all but one of his coaching staff were fired following the Korean team’s disappointing results at the Asian Games.  One of the accusations he levelled at the BKA related to moves he said undermined his attempts to field a strong team in Jakarta last summer.

Of the 6 coaches turned loose by the BKA last autumn, Kang is the 4th to find a position overseas.  Indonesian singles coach Agus Dwi Santoso was almost immediately snatched up by Thailand, while early this year, both Park Tae Sang and Kim Ji Hyun (pictured right) began coaching singles in India.  The two Koreans’ Indian charges picked up, respectively, bronze and gold at last month’s World Championships.

Photos: Badmintonphoto (archives)

 

Don Hearn

About Don Hearn

Don Hearn is an Editor and Correspondent who hails from a badminton-loving town in rural Canada. He joined the Badzine team in 2006 to provide coverage of the Korean badminton scene and is committed to helping Badzine to promote badminton to the place it deserves as a global sport. Contact him at: don @ badzine.net