MALAYSIANS CHAN AND GAN TAKE WORLD JUNIOR MALE DOUBLES CROWN
China Captures Both Female Titles Plus Two More
by Mike Grossman (with information supplied by Sheila Patel at the World Junior Championships Press Desk)

November 24, 1996 (New Shuttlenws) - Chan Chong Ming and Jeremy Gan Wye Teck of Malaysia captured the 1996 badminton world under-19 championship in male doubles today in Silkeborg, Denmark when they defeated the pair of Huang Shih Chung and Chien Yu Hsiu of the Chinese-Taipei Badminton Association in the final match today.

The Malaysians looked like goners at the start of the final match when the Taiwanese players zoomed off to an 11-1 first game lead. However, Chan and Gan got their bearings and slowly but surely caught up to Huang and Chien at 14-all.

The Taiwanese and Malaysian pairs played each other tough in the setting or tie-break, taking the score to 17-all before Chan and Gan finally tallied the winning point.

The Malaysians were more certain of themselves in the second game and beat the Taiwanese team 15-7.

In the female singles final, second seed Yu Hua of China ended the winning streak of the unseeded Aparna Popat of India. She won the match with some ease, 11-7 and 11-3, and laid claim to the title of the best under-19 female singles player in the world.

In the all-China female doubles final, Gao Ling and Yang Wei beat Lu Ying and Zhan Xubin 15-12 and 15-8.

The two Chinese gold medals in the female events brought the Chinese championship total at Silkeborg to 4. Wang Wei and Lu Ying had won the mixed doubles yesterday, and Zhu Feng captured the male singles title earlier with his 16-17, 15-4 and 15-6 defeat of Rudy Ignatius of Indonesia. Chinese players also take home 2 silver medals (Lu Ying and Zhan Xubin in female doubles and Cheng Rui and Gao Ling in mixed doubles) and 2 bronze medals (Xia Xuanze in male singles and Zhu Feng and Zhou Mi in mixed doubles).

Malaysia ends up with one gold medal (Chan and Gan in male doubles), while the traditionally powerful Indonesian side is shut out of the titles and has to be satisfied with 1 silver medal (Rudy Ignatius in male singles) and 3 bronze (Rony Agustinus in male singles, Endra Mulyajaya and Hadi Saputra in male doubles and Rizal Fadilalah and Neneng Setiawati in mixed doubles).

India and Taipei won their first ever medals at a badminton world junior championships - India with Popat's silver in the female doubles and Taipei with Huang and Chien's silver in the male doubles and Peng Ju Ju's bronze in female singles. Badminton powerhouse Korea won 3 bronze medals (Lee Kyung Won in female singles, Yim Bang Eun and Kim Yong Hyun in male doubles and Chung Jae Hee and Yim Kyung Jin in female doubles), while Denmark, the host country and top European power, had to disappointedly settle for one bronze (Britta Andersen and Jane Jacoby in female doubles).