The SCG Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2016 (U19) was held in Bangkok, Thailand from 9th to 17th July. Four male players and three female players were sent from Macao to participate in the championships, led by team leader Ip Lai Chu and coach Lam Un Cheong. The Macao team won over Sri Lanka in the mixed team matches, extinguishing the stigma of earlier defeats with the 3:2 victory over the opponent, and ranked third in the group.
Mixed Teams Focused on Target
From 9th to 12th July, a total of 16 teams from China, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand and Indonesia competed in the group round robin matches for eight quotas in the knock-out. In the draws, the Macao team was in the same group with those from Japan, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka, which apparently made it difficult for the Macao team to proceed to the next stage, therefore the team set its target at the third place of the group.
In 2013, the Macao team was also in the same group with Sri Lanka, and lost the match by 0:5. Three years later, the two sides met again. In the first two games, Che Pui Ngai/Gong Xue Xin competed in the Mixed Doubles and Pui Pang Fong, in the Men's Singles, that the Macao team won after fighting through three rounds and got two points. In the Women's Singles and Men's Doubles that followed, Sri Lanka team's performance was better and tied total score at 2:2.
Beating Sri Lanka After Three Years
In the last and victory-determining match, the Women's Doubles, Macao team's Gong Xue Xin partnered with Ng Weng Chi to fight against Sri Lanka's Buthmi/Thanushi. In the first round, two sides played to overtime and the Macao players won the first game by 23:21 at last with their calm performance. They kept the momentum and won the second round by 21:17, helping the Macao team to beat Sri Lanka with a total score of 3:2. Not getting points in the match with the Japan team and the Hong Kong team, the Macao team still achieved the goal ranking third place in the group.
Lam Hou Him Entered Round of 32 in Men's Singles
In the individual events from 13th to 17th July, men players Pui Pang Fong, Ao Fei Long and Che Pui Ngai had their last matches at the Round of 64. Lam Hou Him, who fought against Zohaib Khan Khalil from Pakistan, won for two consecutive rounds and entered the Round of 32 by 21:15, could not make it further. In the Women's Singles, the three players Gong Xue Xin, Ng Weng Chi and Ao I Kuan competed with players from Sri Lanka, South Korea and Iran respectively, and were not qualified for further matches. The Macao players faced with players from Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and Hong Kong in the Mixed Doubles, Men's doubles and Women's doubles where they failed to break loose of the destiny of the past to play beyond the Round of 32 due to strength gap.
Lam Un Cheong pointed out after the matches that although there was a gap between the strength of Macao players and those from China, Japan and other neighboring areas.We could see the improvement of our local players from the mixed team matches beating Sri Lanka in the event, which laid a boost for the individual events in the future. He expected the players to continue to adjust and training after returning to Macao, preparing for the World Junior Championships in Bilbao, Spain in November.
