Sung-hwan wins major title and men’s pair power on
News 9:02 AM
Thank God!: Sung-hwan goes down on his knees after beating Chen Jin yesterday.
The champs: Yong-dae and Jae-sung holding up their mock cheque after winning the ABC doubles event in Johor Baru yesterday.
SOUTH KOREANS dominated the men’s event in the Asian Badminton Championships (ABC) with Park Sung-hwan nailing his first major title and Lee Yong-dae-Jung Jae-sung continuing their hot streak in international tournaments.
Yesterday, Sung-hwan denied a double joy for China’s Chen Jin by beating the All-England champion 21-18, 21-18 in the men’s singles final at the Stadium Bandaraya in Johor Baru.
It could have been icing on the cake for Chen Jin if he had won it. Just a day ago, the Chinese had booked a place for the Beijing Olympic Games by reaching the final after beating world number one Lin Dan.
But Sung-hwan proved that Malaysia continued to be a happy hunting ground for him. His previous best in a major tournament was reaching the final of the 2004 Malaysian Open at Kuala Lumpur.
“It has taken me six years to reach this point (on winning his first major title since he started his badminton career). And I am thoroughly enjoying this moment,” said Sung-hwan, whose only other title in his badminton career was the Surabaya Satellite tournament in 2005.
“Winning the ABC is important to me and the Thomas Cup (in May) is also a big tournament but what matters more to me is the Beijing Olympic Games. I am focused to do well there,” he said.
Due to several surgeries – especially on his elbow - the 24-year-old Sung-hwan's progress to the top had been slow. But now, the world number 12 has vowed to make his presence felt.
With his win yesterday, Sung-hwan is expected to switch places with Lee Hyun-il as the country’s top men’s singles player when the new world ranking is released on Thursday.
Earlier, the Korean camp erupted with joy when All-England champions Yong-dae-Jae-sung tamed Indonesia's scratch partnership of Candra Wijaya-Nova Widianto 21-16, 21-18 to bag their third title this year.
And Jae-sung credited the win to playing the right strategy by focusing on Nova.
“Nova is a mixed doubles specialist but playing in the men’s doubles for the first. He was our target and that worked well for us,” said the stocky Jae-sung.
On their amazing run this year, which has placed them as the main gold medal contender at the Olympic Games and even tipped to be the next Korean legends like Park Joo-bong-Kim Moon-soo, the duo chose to be modest.
“In the past, we were in a rush to win everything and our focus has been on our attacking game. But our coach felt that we needed to improve on our defence too. Now, we have changed the style of our game,” said Yong-dae.
“And when we are under pressure, our coach (Tae-kwon) shouts with his loud voice to encourage us. That has been a great motivating factor for us.
“But we still think that there are areas that we need to work on as we prepare for the Olympics. The other teams will be analysing our game and vice versa. The standard (of several top pairs) is about the same and we will continue to work hard,” he added.
Posted by Lucas Liau
on 9:02 AM.
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