Japan beats Korea 12-11 on Sudirman semi-finals day

By an interesting coincidence, Japan actually won 12 of 23 matches against Korea on Saturday.  Before the two long-time badminton (but new Sudirman) rivals took to the court in Dongguan for their Sudirman Cup semi-final tie, junior teams from both nations had played off against one another in an annual bi-national event that is on this weekend in the coastal city of Dangjin.  Korea’s teams were at full strength apart from German Junior champion Seo Seung Jae, who currently trains with the senior national team.  Still the Koreans won 8-1 over the Japanese boys, who were also without Dutch Junior champions Yuta Watanabe and Kenya Mitsuhashi.  Japan’s girls obviously did not have the services of star Akane Yamaguchi, but neither did they have New Zealand Open winner Saena Kawakami.  Still, they managed to beat a full-strength Korean team 8-1.

This event has been held annually since 2002 but Korea and Japan have been staging bi-national badminton friendlies since the late 1970s.  It was at a similar event for juniors in 1980 that Park Joo Bong first came to prominence when as a first-year high school student, he beat Japan’s high school singles champion in straight games.