KOREA – Good-bye Coach Li, Hello Coach Lee

Korea’s national badminton team coaching staff has completed a major turnover in the runup to the Korea Open Premier Super Series.  Announced late last year were the departures of singles coach Li Mao from China – who left after spending the better part of the last decade on the peninsula – and the replacement of Head Coach Kim Joong Soo by Sung Han Kook.

The latest piece of the puzzle was the inclusion of Olympic silver medallist and All England Champion Lee Kyung Won among the newly announced coaching roster.  Lee, who turns 31 this month, follows a recent trend for new retirees, as past greats Lee Dong Soo, Ra Kyung Min, and Ha Tae Kwon were all taken on as national coaches immediately following their retirements, and all at age 30-31.  Sources in the Korean team, however, suggest that Lee’s long-term involvement in coaching the team, past the Korea Open, has yet to be decided.

The outgoing Head Coach is not the only Kim who has disappeared from the latest roster, either.  Missing too is former singles star Kim Ji Hyun, who just joined the staff in December of 2009 and was with the team for the promising exploits of Sung Ji Hyun, Bae Seung Hee, and Bae Youn Joo last year.  The national team still has two Kims remaining – Kim Moon Soo and Kim Hak Kyoon – along with Kang Kyung Jin and Ahn Jae Chang.