Source:REUTERS/Molly Darlington
[Saba Sports News] The World Youth Badminton Championships mixed team event held in Nanchang, China, concluded last week. It is reported that this year’s event adopted a new scoring system consisting of 10 matches: two each for men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles, aiming for a total score of 110 points. In the final, Indonesia defeated China 110 to 105 to win the championship. Traditional badminton powerhouses like Denmark (8th), Thailand (9th), and South Korea (13th) did not perform well, while some non-traditional countries like the United States (5th), France (10th), UAE (11th), and Poland (12th) exceeded expectations. In response, Malaysian men’s singles legend Abdul Rashid Mohamed Sidek strongly criticized the use of the new relay scoring system in the World Youth Badminton Championships mixed team event, urging the Badminton World Federation never to consider adopting this system in international badminton competitions again. He stated that this scoring system does not test players’ true abilities and is of no help to the development of badminton. Sidek believes that the 21-point system better reflects the extreme physical and mental demands of badminton, while the relay format takes away that excitement. In the 21-point system, most players only find their rhythm after reaching 11 points; however, in the relay format, when a player wins the 11th point, the match is already over. Moreover, once a team takes the lead, it becomes nearly impossible to turn the game around, making it less interesting.