Japan's Akane Yamaguchi and South Korea's Kwang Hee-Heo were yesterday crowned the World Junior title in the women's and men's events respectively at Indoor Stadium in Hua Mark.
Akane Yamaguchi.
The 16-year-old Yamaguchi landed the title thanks to her convincing 21-11, 21-13 victory over compatriot and top seed Aya Ohori while Kwang defeated Wang Tzu Wei of Taiwan 21-11,21-12 in the finals of the 2013 BWF World Junior Championships.
Third seed Yamaguchi lost to Nozomi Okuhara in last year's final but became the world's youngest player to have won the BWF Superseries tournament after winning the 2013 Japan Super Series.
Top seed Ohori, who was a semi-finalist last year, came into the tournament as a hot favourite after taking the Asian junior title in Malaysia early this year. However, she could not match Yamaguchi, who was fast and precise.
In the mixed doubles, Chinese pair of Huang Kaixiang and Chen Qiangchen beat Mahmudin Masita and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo 21-18, 20-22, 23-21.
In the women's doubles, the title went to Kim Ji-Won and Chae Yoo-Jung of South Korea, who saw off Chinese pair of Chen Qingchen and He Jiaxin 21-19, 21-15.
Meanwhile, Surasak Songvorakulpan, general-secretary of the Badminton Association of Thailand, said that Ratchanok Inthanon and Porntip Buranaprasertsuk will not join the SEA Games in Myanmar in December. Both want to focus on the professional tournaments to get places at the Superseries Final on Dec 11-15.
To be eligible for that, both must be in the top eight in the rankings.
Earlier, Boonsak Ponsana and Thanonsak Saensombonsuk had withdrawn from the SEA Games squad to focus on the Superseries Final.