BEST OF ASIA'S JUNIORS: JASON GUNAWAN (HONG KONG)
Jason is a 16-year-old player from Hong Kong, who is currently ranked #57 in the junior ranking for men’s singles. He has 70 career wins so far, a very impressive feat for someone so young and is on the path to become one of Hong Kong’s rising stars!
Jason’s passion and love for badminton started out young at just 4 years old and is directly influenced by his family, especially his father. His father is Chinese Indonesian and used to play for the Jakarta province team. Back when he was younger, Jason would join his father in playing badminton which led him to earning a place in the Hong Kong junior team.
He tells the South China Morning Post that “Having my dad with me at competitions makes me feel calmer when I play, because I know he’ll always have my back”. The support he’s had from his parents has motivated him to keep going and to work harder!
His motivation paid off as he’s won several tournaments already. He’s won local tournaments in Hong Kong and just last year, he won silver in the men’s singles (U17) event at the Asia U17 & U15 Junior Championships 2019 held in Indonesia.
Then in 2020, he found even greater success. Jason became the youngest-ever men’s singles champion at the Hong Kong badminton championships at just 16 years old. He won against Chan Yin-chak with a score of 21-19, 17-21, 21-13. What’s even more impressive is that in the semi-finals, Jason beat Hong Kong’s #1 Angus Ng Ka-long 23-21, 21-14 to reach the finals.
2020 has been a very important year for him. He made the decision to stop his studies 3 months ago to become a full-time athlete, hopefully bringing Hong Kong badminton to further heights.
In the future, he wants to win the Olympics. This has been his dream ever since he saw Chinese player Lin Dan win gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “I was so thrilled to see Lin’s victory; I just wanted to stand on the top of the Olympic podium like him”, he says.
We hope to see him win that Gold medal and continue the path of success!
