‘Shall we go for consecutive championships?’

Ahn Se-young (21, Samsung Life Insurance), the main player in badminton in Korea, has a goal she wants to achieve this year. It is to win a medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games held in September today. A year and six months ago, Ahn Se-young failed in his medal hunt despite a touching injury at the first Olympic stage of his life (2020 Tokyo Olympics). Just like the Tokyo Olympics, he made up his New Year’s resolution to “never fail twice” in the upcoming Asian Games, the stage for his first challenge in his life.

Since the Chinese and Japanese athletes who swept medals at the Olympics are participating in the Asian Games as they are, the ‘medal spot’ is a realistic goal. However, since there is a team event at the Asian Games, you can expect a gold medal with caution.

Korean badminton is struggling to recover its honor in Hangzhou after suffering the first ‘no medal’ in 40 years at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games. Expectations for Ahn Se-young, who has established herself as Korea’s ace at a young age but is still growing, are bound to be that high.

In the midst of this, Ahn Se-young is taking a smooth New Year’s step toward the Hangzhou Asian Games. The first international competition of the season to challenge for consecutive gold medals. Ahn Se-young has already presented her thrilling ‘New Year’s Day gift’ to badminton fans. On the 22nd, New Year’s Day, she won her first win of the season in the women’s singles final of the ‘2023 India Open Badminton Championships (Super 750)’ held in New Delhi, India, after only two tournament appearances. It was even more thrilling because the opponent in the finals was the world’s No. 1 ‘rival’ Yamaguchi Akane (Japan). World No. 4 Ahn Se-young seemed to be off to a shaky start, giving her first set 15-21. However, she took the second set 21-16 after a close match, and she used this as a springboard to drive her opponent hard, finishing the third set 21-12, a complete victory.

This victory was a success in her revenge in the ‘return match’, which was concluded immediately, so her thrill was doubled. A week ago, Ahn Se-young met Yamaguchi in the final of the ‘2023 Malaysian Open Badminton Championships (Super 1000)’ and swallowed her bunru. Contrary to this Indian Open final, Ahn Se-young took the first set first but lost 1-2.

At that time, Ahn Se-young was in a good mood even until the semifinals. She advanced to the final by defeating the biggest opponent, Chen Youfei (World No. 2, China), after losing six straight matches. It was Yamaguchi who put cold water on Ahn Se-young’s momentum, which seemed to start her first tournament of the year with a victory. Afterwards, in the rematch that took place in a week, it was like a successful revenge that returned her ‘reversal defeat’ intact. 먹튀검증

In particular, Ahn Se-young was on a four-game losing streak against Yamaguchi. Although he is still inferior with a career record of 6 wins and 10 losses, the fact that he broke the 4 consecutive losses that were the main cause of his inferiority gave him a psychological effect beyond ‘success in revenge’.

Ahn Se-young will move directly to Jakarta, Indonesia with the Korean national team to participate in the ‘2023 Indonesia Master Badminton Championships (Super 500)’. This is the third schedule of the Korean national team’s ‘Southeast Asian 4 Countries International Tour’, which started with the New Year.

Ahn Se-young, who will enter the final round from the 25th, is highly likely to clash with Yamaguchi again. If Ahn Se-young advances to the semifinals by gradually defeating her relatively easy opponent, she will have an unusual head-to-head matchup with Yamaguchi for three consecutive tournaments. It might be more comfortable if Ga-eun Kim, a senior on her team (Samsung Life Insurance), filters Yamaguchi first in the round of 16.

Seo Seung-jae and Kang Min-hyuk (men’s doubles), Jung Na-eun and Kim Hye-jeong (women’s doubles), Kim Won-ho and Jeong Na-eun (mixed doubles), who finished bronze at the Indian Open, and Baek Ha-na and Lee Yu-rim (women’s doubles), who finished runners-up at the Malaysia Open, also competed in Indonesia. Aim for a comeback