Having never hosted an event of this magnitude, Nanchang has laid out the red carpet for 437 competitors from 39 teams for the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2024 for the Suhandinata Cup.
Interestingly, this is only the second time that China has hosted the World Junior Championships, having previously hosted the inaugural edition in 2000.
Over the next few days – with the team final on Saturday 5 October – 140 ties featuring 1400 matches will be conducted under the innovative relay scoring system.
The 39 teams (originally 40 before the withdrawal of Ghana) have been divided into eight groups. The competition consists of group stage, followed by a final stage in which teams play for rankings, with the top two teams facing off for the Suhandinata Cup title.
UAE players at a practice session
Since the debut of the team event in 2000, the title has been won by only four teams – China, Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia. Of these, China have been overwhelmingly successful, starting with a hat-trick in the initial years, and then dominating for successive periods to stack up 14 titles overall, followed distantly by Korea with three titles (2006, 2013, 2022). Malaysia (2011) and Indonesia (2019) have one title each.
However, with the relay scoring system in play at this year’s edition, it is expected to enable weaker teams to challenge the traditional powers, and the favourites will have to be on their guard.
Competitors go through their final preparations on the eve of the competition
While defending champions China received a walkover from Ghana in their first tie tomorrow, other strong nations such as Denmark (against Trinidad & Tobago), France (against Armenia), Chinese Taipei (versus Slovakia), Malaysia (versus Mongolia) and Korea (versus Hong Kong China) will feature in the opening session on Monday starting 9am local time.
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