Favourable draw at world meet a relief for under-fire junior shuttlers

PETALING JAYA: The national junior shuttlers received some much needed luck after being handed a favourable draw in the group stage of the mixed team event at the World Junior Championships in the United States from Sept 25-30.

The junior team led by men’s singles player Eogene Ewe had come under fire recently for their disappointing performance in the Asian Junior Championships last month in Yogyakarta.

Eogene and his teammates failed to win any medals.

Only men’s doubles pair Bryan Goonting and Low Han Chen had reached the quarter-finals in the individual event while the team went down 0-3 to Thailand at the same stage in the team competition.

The team will be out to make amends in the world junior meet where they have been placed in Group C along with England, Latvia, Austria and Poland.

Only the group winners will make it to the quarter-finals.

In the last edition of the world junior meet in Santander, Spain, last October, Malaysia did not survive the group stage after going down 1-4 to then defending champions Indonesia.

Malaysia are seeded fourth this time and will have a better chance of reaching the last eight as their closest challengers England are seeded 15th.

The Badminton Association of Malaysia have yet to finalise the list of players selected for the meet but not many changes are expected from those picked for the Asian Junior event.

The individual competition will be held from Oct 2-8.

The players need to raise their game after returning empty-handed from last year’s edition.

It had been one of the worst performances from Malaysia as none of the players even reached the last eight.

Group stage draw

Group A: China, South Korea, Australia, Netherlands, Norway.

Group B: Japan, Canada, Singapore, Mauritius, Lithuania.

Group C: Malaysia, England, Latvia, Austria, Poland.

Group D: Germany, India, Brazil, Cook Islands, Dominican Republic.

Group E: Indonesia, Estonia, Armenia, Portugal, Georgia.

Group F: France, Spain, Ghana, Hong Kong, Belgium,

Group G: Taiwan, Denmark, New Zealand, Slovakia, Tahiti.

Group H: Thailand, United States, Slovenia, Peru, Iceland.