World’s best badminton players to compete in Seoul

World’s best badminton players to compete in Seoul. September. 11, 2017 07:48. by Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com. Top badminton players in the world will complete in Korea at the 2017 Victor Korea Open that opens on Tuesday at SK Handball Stadium in Olympic Park in Seoul.

Victor Korea Open is one of 12 Super Series of the Badminton World Federation whose total prize is 600,000 U.S. dollars. The world’s best badminton players will participate in five competitions including men’s and women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles.

The Korean team led by coach Kang Kyung-jin aims to win in men’s singles and women’s doubles with the best players in Korea, such as the world’s No. 1 Son Wan-ho, No. 4 Jang Ye-na-Lee So-hee and No. 5 Jeong Kyung-eun-Shin Seung-chan. Jeong and Shin, who earned bronze medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, are vying for the top for two years in a row. South Korea swept all the top prizes in three events of doubles last year.

"I know that many people are deeply interested in the game as it is the first game to me as the coach of national team as well as the first Korea Open to be held since daily sports activities and elites sports are combined together," Coach Kang said. “It is a huge burden, but I will do my best to live up to expectations of fans with a good record.”