Badminton: Men’s doubles champs out of All-England
News 9:41 AM
KUALA LUMPUR: South Korea served up a surprise for this year’s All-England in Birmingham from March 3-8 by not listing their men’s doubles defending champions Lee Yong-dae-Jung Jae-sung as a pair for the tournament.
Only the young hotshot Yong-dae will be at Birmingham to play in two events..
He will forge a scratch partnership with Shin Baek-cheol in the men’s doubles and team up with his Beijing Olympic Games gold medallist partner Lee Hyo-jung in the mixed doubles.
This is good news for the other men’s doubles pairs as the formidable Yong-dae-Jae-sung would have clearly been the red-hot favourites to defend their title.
Now, the battle will be among Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong and Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif; Indonesians Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan; and the Danish pairs of Lars Passke-Jonas Rasmussen and Mathias Boe-Carsten Morgensen.
But one should never underestimate the talented Yong-dae, who can partner anyone and still make life difficult for their opponents.
In fact, Yong-dae-Baek-cheol could add an element of excitement by being the darkhorses in the third-leg of the Super Series.
Badminton World Federation sport manager M. Venugopal confirmed yesterday that South Korea did not enter Jae-sung for the tournament.
“South Korea have named four men’s pairs for the All-England. There are no other big names missing from the cast,” he said.
Besides Yong-dae-Baek-cheol, the others are Han Sang-hoon-Hwang Ji-man, Ko Sung-hyun-Cho Gun-woo and Yoo Yeon-seong-Kwon Yi-goo.
Jae-sung, the older partner of Yong-dae, must have decided against making the trip to Birmingham because he will have to undergo a one-month military training in February and will be ill-prepared for the All-England.
The return of China’s shuttlers from their three-month sabbatical will see Lin Dan, the world No. 2, wearing the favourite’s tag.
The Beijing Olympic champion will have to be wary of Lee Chong Wei, Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat and Denmark’s Peter-Gade Christensen.
Posted by Lucas Liau
on 9:41 AM.
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