KOREAN NATIONAL SPORTS FEST - Baest Birthday Yet

Tuesday, 27 October 2009 12:21

The day she turned 19, KT&G singles ace Bae Youn Joo (pictured) started her team off on the winning track in the women’s elite team division of the 90th Annual National Sports Festival in Daejeon, Korea. Miryang City Hall won the men’s team gold for Gyeongnam Province as Heo Hoon Hoi again came through in both singles and doubles.

Story and photos (archives): Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent

It is only immediately before the major domestic tournaments in Korea that the school and professional teams are able to train at full strength, with even their national team players called back to train together with the rookie reserves and the international retirees. This year after the Japan Open, however, the men from Miryang City Hall and the women of KT&G went south to sunny Singapore to kick off their training for the National Sports Festival with a medal sweep of the Li Ning Singapore International Series. When the dust cleared after the team competition finals on Monday, these two teams had landed the men’s and women’s elite titles in Daejeon with starring roles played by all of the Singapore title-winners and more.

For the women’s final, birthday girl Bae Youn Joo had an easy time with doubles specialist Jung Youn Kyung to start things off for KT&G, who were representing Daegu. Shortly thereafter, Bae was unable to seal her team’s victory when she and Kim Jin Ock, the double doubles champion in Singapore, were outgunned by Jung and Lee Hyo Jung.

In the end, the hero of the day was, in fact, Bae Seung Hee, the only KT&G player who did not win a title in Singapore. Bae’s first task was to put an end to the unbeaten streak of Seo Yoon Hee. The rivalry between these two spans both millennia and borders as they were both contenders for middle school titles at home in the 90s and even met in the 2001 Asian Junior Championship semi-finals.

Bae Seung Hee got the better of Seo Yoon Hee twice on Monday, though, beating her 21-19, 21-11 in singles before Bae and Jung Kyung Eun, another Singapore winner, shut down Seo and the mighty Lee Kyung Won 22-20, 21-15 to grab the winning point for KT&G. This was KT&G’s first win in the National Sports Fest since 1995.

Heo Hoon Hoi’s Heroics

Miryang’s situation was slightly different coming into the men’s team final. Though they have no active national team players, they still boasted two recent Olympic medallists among their ranks and were coming in as defending champions. Shon Seung Mo was undefeated coming into the final and remained so, beating Chungnam Province’s Kang Woo Kyum.

But then up came Kim Dong Hun. It has been a while since on the national team but he had already taken down two of its stalwarts on Chungnam’s road to the men’s team final. Still, he was to face Miryang’s Heo Hoon Hoi (pictured above), the man who only two days earlier had made child’s play of beating the great Lee Hyun Il. Heo was edged in the first game 21-23 but came back to win the next two 21-17, 21-18 to give Miryang a commanding lead.

After Miryang’s weaker doubles went down, Heo was back with Beijing bronze medallist Lee Jae Jin and the Singapore International champions used all three games to see off the challenge of Kang Myeong Won / Kim Yong Hyun.

The rest of the titles belonged to the northern teams, however, as, in the university division, Incheon and Seoul took the women’s and men’s titles respectively. In the high school division, Eom Hye Won (pictured) and Choi Young Woo, Korea’s two best juniors, each finished an unbeaten team tournament, contributing two points each to help their teams – Gyeonggi and Gangwon respectively – to the titles. Both of these players took both singles and doubles titles at July’s Summer Championships and will be competing with the rest of Korea’s best for spots on the national team in doubles.

Eom, who also won girls’ doubles gold in Daejeon, has already been on the national team for a year and has faced Olympic gold medallists twice this year in international play. Despite having missed her chance to shine at the World Junior Championships, she is already on her way to being one of Korea’s brightest new doubles stars.

Complete Results:

Elite Division

Men’s Team	Gyeongnam (Miryang City Hall): 3, Chungnam: 1
Women’s Team	Daegu (KT&G): 3, Busan: 1

University Division

Men’s Team	Seoul (KNUPE): 3, Jeonbuk (Wonkwang U.): 2
Women’s Team	Incheon (Incheon U.): 3, Seoul (KNUPE): 0

High School Division

Boys’ Team	Gangwon (Jingwang H.S.): 3, Jeju (Jeju N.U.H.S.): 1
Girls’ Team	Gyeonggi (Pocheon H.S.): 3, Ulsan (Beomseo H.S.): 0

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