The national junior badminton team’s hopes of ending a 13-year drought at the 2024 World Junior Badminton Championships in the mixed team event was dashed after losing to host China in the semi-finals today.

In the championships held at the Nanchang International Sports Center, China, the national team managed by Jeffer Rosobin lost 76-110 and had to settle for the bronze medal.

Based on the new format of the championships, each team play 10 games comprising two men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Each match will only play up to 11 points and the first team to reach 110 points will be declared the winner.

‘I’m not satisfied with the bronze medal. We wanted to play a different game today but somehow the player’s mindset was distracted because the gap of the points was quite big.

‘They are desperate to play well hence it affected their emotions and become not stable,’ said Jeffer through an audio recording shared with the media by the Badminton World Federation
(BWF).

The achievement of the Malaysian junior team this year was similar to the bronze medal feat at the previous edition held in Washington, United States.

For the record, the last time Malaysia clinched the world title was back in 2011 when the championships was held in Taiwan.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency