France and USA finished sixth and tenth respectively as the overall positions below the four semifinalists fell into place at the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2023.

While both teams were beaten in their final playoff matches – Japan taking fifth place beating France and Korea taking ninth place beating USA – they could take heart from their performances this week.

France, for instance, beat Belgium, Hong Kong China, Ghana and Spain before falling to Indonesia in Group F; they then took down Thailand 3-1 to earn a shot against Japan for fifth place.

Malya Hoareau helped France beat Thailand

Team ace Alex Lanier was upbeat with their performance.

“I feel we’re a good team, and it’s good for France, because in the past we’ve lost to Thailand,” said Lanier. “It’s good to show that the new generation are getting better and better. The only problem is that we don’t have so many players. It’s impressive to see that France are in the top ten, and we can be better.”

Similarly, USA had a standout tournament, winning three of their four group ties, and missing out narrowly against Thailand on a quarterfinals place.

USA then beat Denmark and Hong Kong China to earn a playoff against Korea for ninth place.

While USA had reached the quarterfinals in the 2022 edition, they beat stronger teams this week.

USA’s Arthur Lee and Ryan Ma featured in USA’s win over Hong Kong China

Korea did take the tie in the first three matches, but USA head coach Andy Chong was pleased with his team.

“It’s a good accomplishment, we did as well as we could,” said Chong. “We fought hard for it. We could’ve done better, especially against Thailand, we were so close. We lacked competition experience.”

Ella Lin, who’d won five of her six matches this week (two singles and four doubles), was in good spirits despite losing to Kim Min Sun. Lin was particularly thrilled with USA’s win over Hong Kong China.

“I’m really happy, because I know Korea are really good. I’m proud of our win against Hong Kong as their skills are so good, it was tough to beat them, and I’m happy we did. It’s very satisfying. Personally, I’m very honoured and proud to be on the team, that I could achieve such high results and it’s also inspiring for the future. I hope I can continue with this confidence next week for the individual championships.”

Results and placings

Kim Min Sun helped Korea take the tie against USA

5^th place: Japan bt France 3-0
7^th place: India bt Thailand 3-1
9th place: Korea bt USA 3-0
11^th place: Hong Kong China bt Germany 3-1
13^th place: Denmark bt England 3-2
15^th place: Singapore bt Estonia 3-0
17^th place: Canada bt Portugal 3-0
19^th place: Slovenia bt Poland 3-1
21^st place: Netherlands bt Belgium 3-1
23^rd place: New Zealand bt Brazil 3-0
25^th place: Australia bt Spain 3-0
27^th place: Austria bt Peru 3-1
29^th place: Slovakia bt Lithuania 3-1
31^st place: Armenia bt Cook Islands 3-2
33^rd place: Norway bt Ghana 3-0
35^th place: Latvia bt Tahiti 3-0
37^th place: Iceland bt Georgia 3-0

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