PETALING JAYA: Any hope of the national junior shuttlers returning home with a medal in the individual events of the Asian Junior Championships in Taiwan ended with S. Kisona’s exit.
Kisona went down tamely in the girls’ singles quarter-finals to Busanan Ongbumrungpan of Thailand 21-5, 21-10 in just 30 minutes on Friday.
With her exit, the national team have to return home empty-handed, having failed to impress in both the mixed team event and the individual events.
Second-seeded Busanan progressed to the semi-finals where she will face Japanese shuttler Akane Yamaguchi, who beat Qin Jinjing of China in a nail-biting three-game match which ended 21-16, 17-21, 21-18.
There was also another casualty in the girls’ singles – when Singaporean Liang Xiaoyu beat China’s He Bingjiao 21-17, 11-21, 21-14.
Nonetheless, China showed their dominance in the girls’ doubles with three of their pairs making it to the semi-finals of the individual events. The Japanese pairing of Rira Kawashima-Saori Ozaki beat Chanisa Teachavorasinskun-Pacharapun Chochuwong of Thailand 19-21, 21-18, 21-11 to make up the fourth team in the last four.
In the boys’ singles category, Japanese shuttler Kanta Tsuneyama will face Zhao Junpeng of China while the other match-up will be between Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong and China’s Shi Yuqi.
Japan are represented by two boys’ doubles pairings in the semi-finals, which also features the Chinese pair of Huang Kaixian-Zheng Siwei and Kim Jae-hwan-Kim Jung-ho of South Korea.
In the mixed doubles, Japan are represented by two pairs – Kenya Mitsuhashi-Yuta Watanabe and Hashiru Shimono-Kanta Tsuneyama while China and Indonesia are represented by one each.
