Indonesia wins BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships; India finishes sixth

Indonesia recovers after losing opening match in final of BWF World Junior Mixed Team championships.

Indonesia claimed the Suhandinata Cup for the second time with a surprisingly dominant performance over favourites China in the final of the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2024. China were flawless all week, but in the title bout the favourites let the pressure get to them, with several of their players appearing to panic when their challengers built up sizeable leads.

The Indonesians, on the other hand, were composed and exploited their opponents’ rush to close out the rallies. The result was that China, who had lost only one of 50 encounters in the run-up to the final, lost nine of 10 on Saturday.

The only match that went their way was the opening contest between Xu Wen Jing and Mutiara Ayu Puspitasari. Indonesia’s women’s doubles pair of Isyana Syahira Meida/Rinjani Kwinara Nastine completely overturned the team’s fortunes in the second match, converting a four-point deficit into a seven-point lead for the third match.

The Indonesians were high-energy and attack-minded, disallowing the Chinese pair of Chen Fan Shu Tian and Liu Jia Yue any momentum. The women’s doubles result appeared to give Indonesia renewed belief.

Also Read: BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2024: Updated schedule, fixtures, results, live streaming details

The lead was consolidated in men’s singles by Moh. Zaki Ubaidillah, who was adventurous enough to unveil some tricky netshots that had his opponent Hu Zhe An gaping. At the half-way mark, Indonesia’s men’s doubles of Anselmus Breagit Fredy Prasetya and Pulung Ramadhan had built up a seven-point lead, and that was to widen further, to a 15-point gap by the eighth match.

The final handover happened with Ubaidillah securing a 12-point lead, and Prasetya and Ramadhan endured some late jitters to take Indonesia home, 110-103.

“It’s very exciting,” said junior head coach Ignatius Nunung Subandoro. “We last won in 2019 and we’ve waited to win another one. Last year in Spokane we were runners-up. At the Asia Championships in Indonesia, China swept all the titles, so we wanted to become champions in China.

“We knew our chances were 50-50 because we know each other’s game. We followed good strategy. We made ourselves the underdogs, so we could play in a relaxed manner. Every morning we talked together and prayed together; in a team match you must do everything together.”

Beaten semifinalists Malaysia and Japan were both awarded bronze medals.

USA beat Denmark

Earlier, in the playoffs for overall positions, USA continued to impress, beating European powers Denmark for seventh place. Chloe Ho/Ella Lin turned it around for USA in the last match, from a 92-99 deficit to 110-104. Chinese Taipei were easy winners over India 110-87 for fifth place. Three-time winners Korea finished 13th.

Top ten rankings of BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2024

• Indonesia
• China
• Malaysia, Japan
• Chinese Taipei
• India
• USA
• Denmark
• Thailand
• France
• United Arab Emirates

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram