BADMINTON ENGLAND

 

JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

KOREA 2006

 

We have decided as a team to report on our daily experiences for those who might be interested please read on

Day 1 Sun 29th & Mon 30th October

Quite tight schedule due to Michelle Cheung playing in the ladies singles final in Sussex Elite, which caused us to leave 30 minutes late. Traffic to the airport heaving and leaves us an hour and a half to check in and get though security. When we arrived at the airport the 1st practical joke to be played, Victor/Peter had pick pocketed Chris’s passport, we all fell about laughing as Chris sprinted after the bus. Security was a nightmare and took us and hour and 15 minutes so when getting through we were on last call to Gate 53. This is were speed and agility training started, running 15 minutes 70% pace weaving in around and sometimes over other passengers and finally vaulting over moving floor way which some did better than others, always read the signs I say!!. Mariana had so much fun and thought the training at Bath could be altered to accommodate, we will advise Pete Bush on some new ideas.

What a long day with 1st bus journey and long flight of over 10 hours, but amusement all the way with Michelle’s seat being double booked and the continual line of Korean passengers playing shaky hand game and nodding and bowing at each other. Chris & Gabbie were speed training up and down the isles and got some very funny looks, Michelle & Victor had some extra agility training as Lorraine was in the isle seat and did not wake up the whole flight so they continually vaulted over her to get their much needed toilet breaks.

We left the plane and boarded the Austin Powers style bus which took us the Hotel, well not the correct one 1st, we all unloaded our bags and tried to check in but there was no room at the Inn. So loading the bags back on the bus we headed off back to where we came from on another 45 minute coach journey, finally reaching the “Royal Hotel”. We left our bags in our rooms and headed out to find food. After a very short walk we were surprised at the amount of bars and massage parlours that were available which looked suspicious, the choice of restaurants varied from fish, fish & and some others that served fish, this did not go down to well for the team, so back to the Hotel restaurant we went.

1st day conclusion - Wish we had brought a Korean phrase book, biggest problem couldn’t read menu’s and couldn’t recognise food apart from fish

Day 2 Tue 31st October

Silver service English breakfast (what a result), off to training hall and Wow!!! what a impressive hall the event will be in just like the All England, the training was in the basement and the players worked hard for 2 hours, penalties were paid out for losing games, Peter took the brunt of this and was given whacks, we are sure he will get his own back at some point.

Lunch followed training and some chill out time. Early evening the players wanted some retail therapy so we took them to the nearest mall. This was only 10 minutes away but did not stop Victor from falling asleep in the taxi, a new Mcflurry was purchased “Green Tea” which Chris eagerly tried thinking it looked like mint chocolate but in fact tasted of fish, never judge a book by its cover I think the saying goes. Despite the players making the suggestion of shopping, they were obviously jet lagged as got bored very quickly

2nd Conclusion - Don’t shop with Jet Lag!

Day 3rd Wed 1st November

Team not happy as breakfast at 8.00am but things will only get worse as the event unfolds. The practice for all the countries was allowed in the main hall, which was a good job for Maz as she tries to get her timing together as her 1st 2 shots of the day were clean air. We were able to get a few practice matches against the Germans and won them all, shame they are not in our group. The players trained hard for 2 hours with good quality and intensity, so the coaches were happy and players were well prepared 

Now we have been here for a few days you would have thought the sleep patterns would have changed but not for Maz & Gabbs, they keep sneaking off to sleep during the day, but good team work has kept them awake at all time, by continually prodding, shaking and throwing items at them throughout the day, but I guess this is better than sleeping in the Danes room though Maz!!!

A friendly (as if!!) poker tournament has been started with a few countries with Victor the card shark clearing up on the 1st day and Chris losing every 1st round. We were a little shocked about a chair being broken by Sam who sat on a Dutch player while the game was going on, not sure what she was doing at the time but hope that we don’t get the bill

After 3 days Maz decides to have a bath and it turned the water brown, or was it the water was running brown!!! Michelle has many talents but little did we know she is a secret arm wrestler and has been challenging all the boys, Marcus has been her 1st victim and the rest of the boys have refused to compete especially when they found her in a tattoo parlour checking out some new designs (only joking Mr & Mrs Cheung)

On a serious note we attended a managers meeting to find out that our 1st round match against Sri Lanka would not be played as they had withdrawn (or to scared to play us). We were also to find out that the seeding for the individual had to be changed due big mistakes in the original draw; therefore the new draw was made live on the net in front of us. Shame for some of our players had excellent draws, but the redraw was not a total disaster. 

Conclusion of the day – England are the best and worst at cards and don’t mess with Michelle Cheung

Day 4th Thu 2nd November

We had a little longer in bed than all the other teams due to Sri Lanka pulling out so we has a nice quiet breakfast as a team at 8.15am, still early though. Off to the hall to watch our other group opponents who were playing at 11.30am. (Bulgaria v Singapore), this was a great opportunity to work out tactically how play both teams. 

We had a few incidents before the match, where Victor had massive insect’s bites and I mean big, he braved it out and took some cream and was even able to take part in a press interview about his experience, which will be printed in the Korean National papers. We thought a treat to inspire them before they played was to allow a doughnut each as most of the food before this has been very basic and a struggle, (Sorry Jens!!!). There are doughnuts and there are doughnuts but Michelle’s doughnut looked like a “pooh”, but she assured us is tasted like chocolate, we did not try this and took her word for it, everyone else were happy with their jam ones.

Pre match we watched many teams performing their team chants the Kiwi’s did their Haka which was impressive as ever, but Gabby missed this because she was not in the hall, when we explained that we had seen the Haka she exclaimed “What Pakistan has done the Haka” we had to explain that this is a long traditional war dance that is used for all New Zealand’s team games, Gabbys 1st blonde moment and at least she knew who the Kiwi’s were.

So the big match starts, Gabby & Chris went on against the Bulgarian mixed pair, this started very strong and we dominated the match and never losing the lead bar one point, this gave us our 1st Victory and the team the best start. Michelle was up next and she also totally dominated her awkward opponent and won 2 straight sets. Next game Victor who was nervous at the thought of playing singles, did put up a valiant effort and came very close to winning the 2nd set, he battled a bit with himself as he was very capable of winning this match but great experience for him. So we are going into the women’s doubles 2 – 1 ahead. We showed better speed, tactics and technique than the Bulgarians and won convincingly 2 straight, Maz even jumped the last serve of the match with the intention of pinging her opponent but did this so well she got a net cord match winner, this resulted in our overall match win with the men’s double still to play, which saw Peter & Chris totally dominating with great speed especially around the mid/forecourt area, they have made significant progress in this area. So overall a very good performance from the whole team which could have been a tricky match if the players had not played well. We would also like to thank Sam on the Camera, Marcus & Sarah on the clangers for their support throughout the whole match

Conclusions of the day – England are better than Bulgaria

Day 5    4th November

We got up early and prepared well for the big group match against Singapore. This tie will decide who comes top in the group and play for 1st to 8th position in the world. We knew this was going to be a tough match so we started with the mixed. Peter & Maz started ablaze and won the 1st end comfortably which looked very promising, during the 2nd end we had the chance to close out the match but due to the opponents retrieving more and more shuttles, this put Peter & Maz under more pressure, mistakes started to creep in and lost 2nd end. It was a tense 3rd game from both sides and could have gone either way but unfortunately after a desperate battle the match was lost 21-19 (yes just 2 points). Chris then went onto play his men’s singles which proved to be a big challenge as the opponent was very quick onto the shuttle and put Chris under great pressure, Chris gave 100% but unfortunately he was out manoeuvred by his opponents speed and accuracy and lost in 2 straight sets. So we go into the women’s singles 2-0 down, we knew that Michelle’s opponent is ranked in the top 50 in the world and is seeded 3 in the individual, this was going to be a very tough game for her to win. Michelle was a little bit in ore of her opponent and unfortunately she lost in 2 straight games. The bitter pill to swallow was to then move on to the level doubles with Maz & Gabby, Pete & Chris both winning in 2 straight sets. The final result England 2 Singapore 3, the team feeling absolutely gutted, an opportunity lost. We are now playing off for 9th to 16th Position and play Holland in the next round later the same day.

General happenings of the day have occurred which found Chris in the toilets confused, he sneaked into the staff toilets where he found a royal throne, well a toilet with heated seats and lots of buttons, he was taking his time and enjoying his surroundings but when ready to leave he found all the instructions for flushing were all in Korean, so he pressed every button but nothing happened, totally exhausted of any of the combination of button pressing, he decides to make a quick escape and checked the coast was clear so no one realised its him who had left a present for the next visitor.

Sarah has had some strength problems with her fingers whilst she has been here and struggled to open the cheese slices for the sandwiches, she battled for about 20 minutes trying and eventually another team member had to help her out. We recommend squeezing a squash ball every night for 20 minutes whilst watching TV to improve finger power

The team has decided the most irritating player at the tournament is the bra less wonder form the Czech Republic, we are not mentioning any names, she’s constantly standing up in the seating area, standing on a court looking around pulling faces, rushing off somewhere and going no where and where ever England sits she seems to be around us. Does anyone know what sit down or go away in Czech is? Please let Badminton England know as we are getting desperate.

The match versus Holland, the matches are now played until the 1st team to gets to 3. This is a tough match as Holland has some good players, we played the mixed 1st and Chris & Gabby started fantastic and nothing passed Gabby in the beginning of the 1st set, she totally dominated giving Chris an easy lift to put away. This continued throughout the 2nd game and they made a very good Dutch pair look very ordinary, so won in 2 straight sets. Michelle went on next. Playing a girl she had lost to before, she put this behind her and controlled the game really well, dominating the game she looked as though she was never going to lose, she won in 2 straight games. Marcus went on next for men’s singles his 1st team match, he performed extremely well taking the 9/16 seed to 2 close sets but unfortunately lost. Onto a very exciting ladies doubles with Gabby & Maz, we won the 1st game fairly comfortably and took 8-1 lead in the 2nd game but then became scrappy. The girls made loads of errors and were really finding it hard to time their hits and their movement around the court was slow. We were down on the turn and ended up being 11-19 down, not looking too good and Lorraine was having kittens, but they kept battle ling and played a few good rallies at this stage pinching a run of points, we pulled it back to 15-20 and the Dutch girls made a pile of errors and gave us a glimmer of hope and unbelievably we clawed our way back to 20-20, we then closed out the game and won the next 2 points 22-20 (PHEW!!!!), what a way to play the match winner. The guys didn’t need to play and had spent 20 minutes warming up. (Thanks girls!). England 3 Holland 1.   We are now playing for 9th to 12th position.

Difficult to explain but we are going to import a new game to English badminton players following an interesting coach journey back to the hotel. We have named the game “finger slap head” watch out at Derby Nott’s

Conclusion of the day – The margins between winning and losing are very small but carry big consequences

Day 6 4th November

Following a very good nights sleep we had breakfast and agreed to go out for lunch at TGI Fridays. We found out that Victor had a poor nights sleep. Terrified of being bitten again he had a plan, bearing in mind its already hot in his room he decides to sleep fully clothed and covered himself with insect repellent, he was conscious of a buzzing in his room and lay awake wondering if the buzzing would stop, he couldn’t see anything as the lights were off as his room mate Marcus was asleep, eventually he got to sleep but next morning he discovered that he neglected to cover his hands and found a big bite, we have purchased some mittens for him now.

Our next match we play Russia to hopefully play for 9th/10th position tomorrow. We watched the Russians play Turkey the day before and realised they would be awkward opponents, technically very strange but good athletes and effective.

We started with the mixed, Chris & Gabby won the 1st set very comfortably, their 2nd set they dropped the level of play and the Russians started to play well, this resulted in a tentative 2nd set, we were snatching for quick shots that weren’t really on and made a lot of mistakes which resulted in us losing the 2nd set. The 3rd set was very patchy with little runs from both sides, it went down to the wire more kittens from Lorraine but finally we managed to clinch it (PHEW!!). Marcus went onto play the singles and again battled hard with 2 very close sets, he controlled the net well which allowed him to compete, but couldn’t close either of the 2 sets and narrowly lost a match he was very capable of winning. Michelle was up next playing a very unorthodox opponent which can be off putting for most players, she was very clinical in her approach to the game today and hardly made any errors. This win gives us a 2-1 lead going into the men’s doubles with Chris & Peter, they started very well by dominating the 1st half of the 1st game but by making a few unforced errors they allowed their opponents a glimmer of hope and let them back in, this resulted into a very tight finish which we narrowly closed out after 3 game points, the 2nd set was similar with unforced errors and frustration as opponents were really unorthodox. Their opponents created a good lead and we were always chasing and did not manage to catch up losing the 2nd set. The 3rd was patchy with runs from both pairs but with Chris & Peter digging deep and not giving up on any points, eventually they got their game together and manage to close out the 3rd set, giving us our match win of England 3 Russia 1.

The team support was very good today with Sarah & Victor taking over the video work and we not only beat the Russians in the match today but we out did their team with our support, we had a Mexican wave going and cheered louder to dampen the Russian wailing noises, good job done today team. We now play off for 9th & 10th position tomorrow against Chinese Taipei and what ever happens we will be the top European nation in the world (Come on England!!!)

The journey back from the hall was eventful with not enough seats on the coach to sit, so Lorraine sat at the front and took control of the mike and asked if anyone was willing to do Karaoke, she asked Japan and no response was given, perhaps didn’t understand the Brummie accent, then names were being shouted out from Indonesia when those names were requested from her only a fit of giggles were heard, still no volunteer. Requested Marianna to come forward but not tonight she said (Chicken), she is not normally short of a few words. Unfortunately no singers were up for it, so Lorraine gave a commentary on the surroundings for the journey back, thank god she did not sing.

Conclusion of the day – Every possibility must be covered if there is any weak area it will be found and if there is any bare skin it will be bitten

Day 7 - 5th November

Playoff for 9th & 10th position in the world, ENGLAND v CHINESE TAIPEI.

Yet again we started with the mixed double with Chris & Gabby, Gabby was on form at the start of every rally with Chris taking total control of the mid/rear court, mixing up his attack which disrupted his opponents rhythm allowing him to hit through with ease which made Gabbys job very easy to finish rallies. They played excellent for both sets winning comfortably. Michelle went on playing her 1st set with grace & control and dominated the game, 2nd set was quite even at the start and her opponent had a run of playing really well, she retrieved more shots which put Michelle under pressure and she become tentative in her play and made a few errors, unfortunately she let the 2nd game slip away, 3rd set was a very tense with the lead going backwards and forwards, the match continued this way to near the very end. When a few missed shots and unforced errors occurred just at the wrong time it gave her opponent the edge to close out the game. Victor went onto plays the singles and got confused and started to play doubles, unfortunately the new rules are only to do with the serve, point for point rally and the side tramlines are still out, (sorry Victor), to be fair to Victor his opponent was a top class player and could play at a very fast pace with control. This was all a little too much for him to cope with. We are now down 2 – 1 going into the women’s doubles, Maz and Gabby went into the 1st set, they worked really hard the rallies were long but they remained patient and got their reward by taking the 1st set. 2nd set their opponents changed their tactics and the our girls started to hit to hard and deeper into court allowing their opponents to whip and counter attack them, we then made a few errors and lost the 2nd set narrowly. 3rd set was a very dramatic game going one way then the other, on the turn we were down, the rallies were really long and both sides were working so hard for their points. The girls had a moment of 2 to 3 quick mistakes allowing a 4 point gap, 19 – 15 down, the girls fought hard again and got back on track and managed to get back to 20 – 17, their opponents were looking edgy and next 2 rallies were a big battle but converted both making the score 20 – 19, so serving to stay in the match again, a long fought rally was took place with both sides retrieving shuttles from everywhere, setting up our side to play a net kill winner which landed well in (we believe and the Germans) was clipped by opponent just after it landed and was carried out the back of the court and the line judge called it out.

A very disappointing end to a very exciting match which left us losing to Chinese Taipei 3 – 1.

England final position is No10 in the World, top European Country.

Conclusion of the day – We are the best in Europe and have the ability to beat Asia, oh and bye the way Korea beat China 3 – 2, all on the last game

Day 8 6th November

The individuals start today with the Mixed and Singles. Victor & Sarah go on first and beat an American pair in 2 straights sets, Maz & Peter beat in 3 sets a Bulgarian pair, Gabby loses to a Singapore girl 2 – 1, Sarah wins 2 – 0 over a Hong Kong girl, Victor loses 2 – 1 to a Canadian lad, Marcus & Sam beat 2 – 0 to a Chinese Macau pair, Chris & Gabbie beat an Indian pair in 2 straight sets, Peter & Maz win in 2 to a Hong Kong pair & lastly Michelle loses 2 – 1 to an Indonesian girl, all the players who are through are into the 3rd round.

You will be wondering why Sarah did not play again today, we had to withdraw her from the entire event, due to an injury. (See below)

My amazing day by Sarah Walker

After winning my first two games at the World Junior Championships, I decided to spice things up a little by free falling down some stairs onto some very dangerous and stupidly placed rolls of flooring. I therefore experience a twisted ankle followed by pain and then a lot of people tending to me.

Since there was such a crowd I decided to pass out twice, get hyperthermia and bang my head on the floor. Waking up I find myself in the recovery position, I was then loaded onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. The journey to the hospital was a blur of oxygen tubes being shoved up my nose, sirens blazing, screaming through red lights and Lorraine being thrown around in the back of the ambulance. At the hospital some tests were taken which were not made easy by the difference in the language. I was then taken in a wheel chair and nearly knocked out again by some swinging doors, after lots of fast wheel chair driving (with Lorraine jogging to keep up) and a fair amount of x-rays my leg stroke ankle was put in a splint and bandages which it will stay in for a week. I also have to take a variety of multi coloured tablets.

Conclusion -  Shocking being injured at World Juniors as its not fair and is rather gutting, but I have a 100% winning record and the Korean doctors think I am pretty (sorry Marcus)

We are starting to wonder about out our school geography system as Sam has had a blonde moment and so has Gabby again, Sam thinks there are no badminton courts in Egypt as its all desert and Gabbie still does not know where New Zealand is last seen she was looking in an atlas.

Victor lost and found his phone which is of no use what so ever as no Europeans phones work in Korea.

We have lost a team member, he is small a furry teddy bear and goes by the name of “Toffie”. Maz is deeply distressed as he has grown up with her and been every where with her. He has either wondered off because he is bored or possibly he cant sleep because of Gabby snoring or he has been bear knapped, if it’s the latter the Danes are the first suspects, but we are sitting tight just in case we get a phone call with a ransom for his safe return. Any information that helps for his safe return may receive a reward please email martin@topracket.com

Day 9 7th November

Our 2nd day results were very positive leaving us with 5 pairs left in the event. Mixed saw Sam & Marcus beat a New Zealand pair 5/8 seeded pair 2 straight; Chris & Gabbie beat a Turkish pair 2 – 0, Peter & Maz lost to the same Singapore pair they played from the team event in 2 straight sets. Women’s doubles Maz & Gabby beat in 2 a pair from the USA. Men’s doubles Marcus & Victor beat a Singapore pair 2 – 0 and lastly Peter & Chris beat an Australian pair 2 – 0.

After lots of searching and accusations, Denmark being the prime suspects, we questioned them and they denied all knowledge of even seeing Toffie during the whole tournament. He re-appeared in Maz’s room unharmed but a little stressed because no one had discovered him trapped between 2 beds.

Michelle was given the responsibility of video women today but had real technical issues and could not get the camera to work. After trying every option (so we thought!) discovered she had not put a tape in (blonde moment for Michelle or perhaps its just love!). She was continually being distracted by Derek from Singapore who by the way has a great singing voice. Requests for a duet will be made on Friday at the Karaoke club.

A Mongolian badminton player not of the highest quality was named by the team “Bridgett” due to being voted as the girl with the biggest knickers at the tournament. We then went onto watch her play, she was playing with a smart Yonex racket but all was not going well as she was losing heavily. She then gets out of her bag some old faithful racket an unknown brand with a tatty old grip which had different coloured strings, obviously been repaired many times. As she hit the shuttle it sounded like its was strung in rope. She then continued her match played much better and scored a load of points, but still lost. What can we learn from this? Mind over matter!!

Conclusion of the day – Its not the equipment you use it’s the way you use it

Day 10 8th November

Chris and Gabby went on as the first England pair in the last 16 to play the Chinese number one pair; they lost 22-20 12-21 12-21. The game was full of long, exciting rallies which could have left the game going either way, but the pace and consistency of the Chinese saw them coming out on top. Marcus and Sam then played Chinese Taipei and lost in 2 straight sets making a few earlier errors giving confidence to the Chinese Taipei pair, who then didn’t allow the English pair back into the game. Maz and Gabby then went on to play the Japanese number one pair; they lost in two sets to a more experienced and stronger pair, who dominated most the rallies. Marcus and Victor then followed by playing a pair from India, they unfortunately lost in two straight sets, occasionally showing they had the class to beat them, however couldn’t maintain this as the Indian pair were just too solid this time. The last game for England was Chris and Peter’s doubles, where they were facing the Malaysian number two seeds, which they beat late last season in Dutch Junior. Unfortunately their form couldn’t be reproduced and the skill and pace of the Malaysians was too much for the England pair after staying with them for most of the first set. The final score was 21-18 21-15.

Gabby got confused again yesterday.. when she and Maz were having a small motivational talk about the 2012 Olympics, Martin asked her how many years she had until participating, after counting in her head she replied “six years, Martin” and after a small pause, she asked Maz, “How many years do you have?” .. enough said!!

Michelle gets Derek’s email address, say no more!!!

Conclusion of the day – Geography is not the only concern as Mathematics is also an issue.

Day 11 9th November

An update on the mosquitoes – Victor has been bitten again and now tallies 13 bites, also both lacking in sleep due to them being up all night swatting. Good practice for forearm rotation.

Today was our first day off where we didn’t go to the badminton hall. The coaches kindly decided to take us out and visit Seoul. We took a tube with the Germans and went to Seoul Olympic park. When we arrived there we discovered we had lost four members; Peter, Marcus, Sarah and Victor. In an attempt to find them, a search party was sent out in the form of a six seated bicycle, where Sam, Chris, Gabby, Michelle and Maz took to the road and pedaled around the stadium to look for them. However, the five of them got sidetracked into off-piste cycling up and down the hills of the stadium. On one occasion we attempted a steep down hill which was one pedal too far; they flew down the hill and crashed into the gate at the bottom – which crumbled with the force.

Michelle has video footage and photos of the gate for proof of their bravery. After having much fun on the bikes and not really paying attention to the missing troops, they cycled passed the Germans who enlightened them that the others had been found, luckily (no thanks to them). The experience of going to the Olympic park was unbelievable and inspired everyone to one day become a participant rather than a visitor.

Peter, Marcus and Victor did some weight training all day by carrying Sarah up and down the underground stairs as she claimed she couldn’t keep up with the pace – anything to get out of walking! “Walkless Walker” she has been re-named

With all the hard work and energy being used during the cycling and some very bumpy pedaling, we later discovered that Martin had lost his passport shock horror panic. He returned to the park looking in hope to find the missing item, on Saturday he is due to fly to Hong Kong for his stag weekend. He will be getting married in April and losing the passport could ruin all his well laid plans. There was no sign that it had been handed in, so we continued to return by tube to the hotel worried concerned and slightly stressed as you can imagine.

Conclusion of the day – Players can be conned into physical training on their day off and lesson learned on where we should carry our passports, thanks Martin (Muppet!!).

Day 12 10th November 

Our final day began with an early start which the majority of the players weren't happy about. As training began at 10.30am with some light physical, which some players chose not to complete. Firstly Sarah with her broken leg, although her participation in timing the others was excellent! Michelle's mystery ankle injury which seemed to get worse when the word
physical was mentioned! And finally Maz. We are still investigating the reason why Maz's failure to complete the circuit designed by Marcus and
Gabby.

The team then proceeded to watch the semi-finals. After watching Lee Yong Dae win his mixed semi final he then proceeded too shakes hands with the Korean prime minister, and once again here came Gabbys blonde moment of the last day as she said "is he like George Blair in America" after puzzling looks from all the team instantly she realized what she had said, once again sending the team into fits of laughter. After the matches we all got on the coach and headed back to the hotel from the hall for the last time for a bite to eat, hoping England would be safe on our return under Tony Bushes government, (sorry Gabby).

Conclusion of the day – After discussions with players, to be the best you have to do more than the rest.

Day 13 11th November

Lorraine would like to wish Worcestershire 1st team good luck in premier ‘A’ this weekend and Martin wishes good luck to Dorset in premier ‘B’

We leave Incheon today not looking forward to the journey home as we will be traveling for 12 hours hope you have enjoyed our daily diary. We leave you with some closing thoughts from each player

Best memory at the 2006 Junior World Championships

Marcus Ellis:- Visiting the Olympic Park I couldn’t believe how big the park actually was, it inspired me to work harder to achieve the best I can and will hopefully one day compete at the Olympics

Chris Adcock: - When Gabby and I went on and played in the last 16 in the draw against the top Chinese and took the 1st set the feeling was great to compete with not only the best in Europe but also the best in the World.

Peter Mills: - The 1st time we walked into the hall and the realization of the sheer size of the hall and what a big event it will be

Victor Liew: - Beating the Singapore pair was a great feeling and built my confidence oh and also being bitten 20 times by mosquitoes

Sarah Walker: - All the help & support I received after my injury especially many piggy backs, cheers everyone.

Sam Ward: - My best experience of the trip was being able to play against & watch the best in the world, it has shown me what I need to aim for and has motivated me to train harder when back home

Michelle Cheung :- On the day we went to the Seoul Olympic park where we hired 6 man bike, we had so much fun pedaling across the park and went down a very steep hill. We went so fast that we could not brake in time and crashed into a metal fence breaking it in half; I banged my teeth and gave my shins 3 big bruises.

Gabby White: - My best moment that I will never forget was the day we rented a bike and raced down a steep hill and crashed into a metal fence leaving half of it remaining and Michelle with a bruised leg.

Mariana Agathangalou: - Gaining the experience of playing and watching World Class badminton, making friends with players from across the world and learning about different cultures.

Conclusion of the day – Lots of friend’s made and great experiences gained  

Please email JensGrill@badmintonengland.co.uk if you enjoyed this overview of our experiences during the World Junior Championships

Contributors:
Chris Adcock, Marcus Ellis, Victor Liew, Peter Mills, Mariana Agathangelou, Michelle Cheung, Sarah Walker, Samantha Ward, Gabby White, Martin Wells and Lorraine Cole