Taiwan student team crowned badminton champions in Tokyo

2016/09/02

A team of young Taiwan badminton players earned first place at the 2016 Asia Junior Sports Exchange Games held in Tokyo Aug. 26-28, the first time the nation has won gold since the tournament began in 2006.

The Taiwan team was made up of students from Taipei Municipal Datong High School. The competition consisted of boys’ and girls’ doubles and singles, as well as mixed doubles, with the championship awarded based on the cumulative scores from each category.

Hsiao Poa-ren, head coach at Datong High School, said the competition was organized by Tokyo sports authorities as part of preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Taiwan has taken part in the Asia Junior Sports Exchange Games for the past 10 years, but prior to this year, its best performance had been second place.

The tournament involved 17 teams from 12 nations, namely India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Each country had at least one team from their respective capital cities, with Tokyo sending two teams, designated A and B.

Badminton coach Lin Che-wei, who was hired by Datong High School to accompany the team to the tournament, said the Taiwan athletes defeated their opponents from New Delhi and Yangon, as well as Tokyo team A, during the preliminaries without losing a single match. The playoffs proved to be much more difficult, with the team getting a rough start against Indonesia before clawing their way back for the win.

Also during the playoffs, Taiwan defeated Thailand, who were last year’s winners, by a combined score of 3-2. The team faced off against Singapore in the final, easily defeating their opponents 4-0 and taking home the trophy.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=247609&ctNode=2194&mp=9)