A Special Day for Indonesia in Yogyakarta
The BNI Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2023 is finally over. The champion parade was distributed to three countries: China, Japan, and Indonesia. Out of the six titles at the tournament, China brought home three, and all of them were from the individual events, namely men's singles, men's doubles, and mixed doubles.
The men's singles title went to the third seed, Hu Zhe An. In the final, which was held at Among Rogo Sports Hall. On Sunday (16/7/2023) local time, he won 13-21, 21-14, and 21-14 over the 14th seed from Japan, Yudai Okimoto. Then, the two titles were won by his fellow Chinese representatives in the men's doubles and mixed doubles. Ma Shang/Zhu Yi Jun, the eighth seeds, defeated unseeded Chen Yong Rui/Hu Ke Yuan 19-21, 21-16, and 21-13. Then the first seed, Zhu Yi Jun/Huang Ke Xin, won two games, 21-19, 21-18, over the third seed, Liao Pin Yi/Zhang Jia Han.
Japan, on the other hand, brought home the title in the mixed event as well as in the individual event in the women's doubles. In the team, Japan became the champion after defeating host Indonesia with a tight score of 3-2. This success made Japan repeat the 2012 achievement when it beat China 3-0. Interestingly, in 2012, Japan also became the women's doubles champion, and it was repeated in 2023 when Mei Sudo/Nao Yamakita, seeded first, beat Korean pair Park Seul/Yeon Seo Yeon, unseeded, 21-19, 14-21, 23-21 .
History has also been made at this year’s Badminton Asia Junior Championships. For the first time, Indonesia became the champion in women's singles. Mutiara Ayu Puspitasari, the sixth seed, defeated Korea's Kim Min Ji, the 14th seed, in two straight games, 21-11, 21-17. The achievement of becoming Badminton Asia Junior Champion has never been done by any Indonesian women’s singles, including Maria Kristin, bronze medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, and Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, 2017 world junior champion. At the Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2016, Gregoria reached the finals but was then defeated by Chen Yufei from China. In the era of the legend Susi Susanti, gold medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, there were no Badminton Asia Junior Championships yet. When this event was first held in 1997, she was almost retired.
Yogyakarta might have brought its blessings for Indonesian players. When Gregoria Mariska Tunjung became the junior world champion, the event was held in that city, the same place where Mutiara Ayu Puspitasari just made history.
In addition, even though there are a lot of countries that are strong in badminton, more countries are showing improvements. One thing that stole the attention was when Sri Lanka’s representative, Ranithma Linayage, advanced to the fourth round. However, her journey was halted by Kim Min-ji from Korea, who made it through to the final round.
Meanwhile, in the men's doubles, the pair from the United Arab Emirates, Dev Ayyapan/Dhiren Ayyappan, advanced all the way to the third round. However, the pair was defeated by the Indonesian pair Zidane Attauba/Kleopas Binar Putra Prakoso. Likewise, in the mixed doubles, the United Arab Emirates pair Dev Vishnu/Taabia Khan also progressed until the third round.
Achievements made by the developing countries at the BNI Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2023 showed that the sport is growing stronger across Asia. It is possible that we are already looking at the emergence of new badminton powers. (*)
