Hong Kong clinches gold, two silvers at Para-Badminton World Championships in Basel
- Wong Chun-yim becomes men’s doubles champion with Chu Man-kai and wins a singles silver
- Chan Ho-yuen captures another silver in the wheelchair class as he aims to qualify for the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo
Hong Kong’s top disabled shuttlers made a triumphant return from the Para-Badminton World Championships with one gold and two silver medals from the tournament in Basel which was hosted in parallel with the event for able-bodied athletes for the first time.
In the SS6 class (short stature 6), Chu Man-kai and Wong Chun-yim clinched the men’s doubles gold after beating India in the final. The pair, both scholarship athletes at the Sports Institute in Fo Tan, beat Nagar Krishna and Raja Magotra 21-15, 17-21, 21-18 in the hour-long battle.
As the top seeds, Chu and Wong won both matches in the group stage before advancing to the semi-finals directly. The pair thrashed an Indian and American combination 21-5, 21-6 in the last-four stage to reach the title match.
Wong became Hong Kong’s most successful athlete in the tournament as he also clinched a silver medal in the singles. He clashed with his doubles partner in the quarter-finals, earning a hard-fought 23-21, 21-14 victory. The joint fifth/eighth seed then saw off Vitor Tavares of Brazil, also a joint fifth/eighth seed, 21-13, 21-16 in the next round to reach the final. However, top seed Jack Shephard of England proved too strong for Wong, winning 21-17, 21-10.
Hong Kong’s second silver medal came in the WH2 (wheelchair 2). Chan Ho-yuen, the world number two, progressed in the men’s singles until he met long-term rival Kim Jungjun of South Korea in the final. In November, Chan famously ended his opponent’s seven-year winning run with a 21-14, 18-21, 21-13 win at the Australian International, but Kim reversed the result when they last met in the Irish International in May. In Basel, the world number one South Korean continued his winning streak, prevailing 21-18, 13-21, 21-18.