In today’s BNI Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2023, Japan’s 11 years wait is finally paid off. Japan beat the host team, Indonesia, 3-2 after fighting on all 5 matches that took 5 hours.
Initially, Indonesia's chance to become champion was bigger. In the first match, Indonesian mixed doubles pair Adrian Pratama/Felisha Alberta Nathaniel Pasaribu lost to Japanese representatives Daigo Tanioka/Maya Taguchi in a straight game 8-21, 20-22. Immediately in the next match, Indonesian equalized their position through women’s singles Mutiara Ayu Puspitasari, ranked 15th in the world, whom surprisingly defeated number one and also the 2022 world junior champion, Tomoka Miyazaki, in a straight game 21-17, 21-16.
Indonesia then led 2-1 after their men's singles Alwi Farhan, ranked 12th in the world junior ranking, won 21-13, 14-21, 21-14 over Yudai Okimoto, ninth in the world junior ranking.
At that point, Indonesia was only one point away to victory. However, the Japanese team successfully made their way through women’s doubles pair Mei Sudo/Nao Yamakita defeated Indonesian pair Anisanaya Kamila / Az Zahra Ditya Ramadhani in a tight rubber game 21-19, 14-21, 23-21.
Finally, the men’s doubles concluded Japan to be the champion after Kenta Matsuyawa/Daigo Tanioka defeated the Indonesian pair Muhammad Al Fajri/Nikolaus Joaquin in three games 21-11, 19-21, 21-13.
The last time Japan stood on the highest podium of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships was in 2012. At that time, they became champions by beating China with a score of 3-0. On the other hand, for Indonesia, this result added into their record of loss in the final for the third time. Previously in 2019, Indonesia lost to Thailand with a score of 2-3. Likewise in 2017, Indonesia was defeated by Korea with the same score, 2-3.
The BNI Badminton Asia Junior Championships matches will continue their Individual event starting on Wednesday (12/7/2023). The competition is predicted to be fierce. In the men's singles number, a new champion will be born after Kunlavut Vitidsarn rose to senior. While in the women's singles, the defending champion, Tomoka Miyazaki, from Japan still took part and was seeded in first place. (*)
