The previous edition of the World University Badminton Championship held in Porto, Portugal, saw the triumph of countries like Thailand, Indonesia, China, Japan and of course Chinese Taipei. The overwhelming domination of Asia has become almost traditional for this discipline which fortunately continues to attract countries from other regions of the world that are determined to challenge this supremacy.
Taipei City hosted the 11th edition of this WUC. The Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation and the national badminton federation provided very professional organization at a high technical level. Thanks to them, and to the many volunteers, all participants had the advantage of ideal conditions for exercising their sport. The tournament was divided into two parts.
The team competition was the first, organized in the Sudirman Cup scheme with the objective of ranking all the participating countries. This was achieved despite the additional effort required from the players given the number of matches to be played. Some players, even among the best, finished up completely exhausted.
On the other hand, the individual tournament was simply based on direct elimination.
From the standpoint of participation, 20 countries were accredited at Taipei City. There were many Asian countries, with large delegations from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and of course the host country. Australia also participated, along with many European countries, despite the distance to be travelled. Finally, with 68 men and 63 women, the balance between the sexes was essentially reached, and we were pleased to see it.
The players were at the best level ever reached in our competitions with athletes ranked at the top of the WBF lists. Favourite teams included China, Chinese Taipei, Japan and Korea. In fact, these championships were just below a WBF world championship or a grand prix. China (the defending champion) took the team competition after a suspenseful final against the local team. Chinese Taipei impressed its opponent with its cool-headed attitude going into the final, and it almost did the trick. Everything was uncertain until the final ladies double when China took the 5th point needed for the 3rd consecutive gold medal in this category. The bronze medal went to Thailand that bested Korea.
In any case, the victories gained in the team competition over adversaries that a priori seemed stronger gave new impetus to the Chinese Taipei players. They dominated the individual matches, taking the men’s singles, the men’s doubles and the mixed doubles.
Despite his great shape and his remarkable first set, Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto couldn’t stop his opponent cheered on by the local crowd.
Hsuan-Yi Hsueh won the men’s singles after an epic battle lasting 75 minutes. The men’s doubles again overheated the gymnasium. The team of Chieh-Ming Fang and Sheng-Mu Lee had a hard time overcoming the talent of Bodin Isara-Maneepong Jongjit, an excellent pair from Thailand. Here too, it took three very active sets for the local team to finally pocket the gold medal.
Finally, the mixed double was a simpler business for the local team that stomped over the Chinese pair. The Chinese got theirs back by taking the remaining two titles: the women’s singles and doubles. In fact the singles was pure Chinese as Xueri Li overcame Xin Lui in a one-sided battle. The conclusion with the ladies’ doubles went to the Jin-Ma/Shu Cheng team from China. In fact they won by forfeit due to an injury in the other finalist team (which was also Chinese).
Rendez-vous in 2012 in Gwangju, Korea for the next edition of our World University Badminton Championships.
