Hi, all, I recently watched the Thomas 96 MD game between Jubong Park/Doonmoon Kim and Antonius/Kantono. I was very impressed by Park/Kim's performance! I think the Korean team should definitely try to put Park/Kim as their first MD and let them play Ricky/Rexy. I am eager to know more about this pair. Was it a scratch pair then? Did Park/Kim attend any opens? Did they go to the Atlantic Olympics? Thanks guys!
Rexy and Ricky are long since retired Kim Dong Moon now plays with Ha in levels (I think) He did win the gold in the Olympics did he not?
I watched that match too (got the DVD from Han). It was the 2nd MD. The game was not even close, and obviously Park/Kim is 1 level higher than Antonius/Kantono. Ricky/Rexy were playing 1nd MD. Too bad, they didn't play each other. A lot of people said Ricky/Rexy could be the best ever. If Park and Kim could team up longer, I think they are even better. Too bad the 2 great double players have an huge age gap. Later I watched another AE MD final between Ricky/Rexy and Antonious/Kantono and the game was very close.
Although it is dangerous to compare transitively (i.e., A>B, B>C then A>C), I tend to believe that Park/Kim would be even better than Ricky/Rexy. Young Kim in 96 is powerful, accurate, ruthless and already has the insight and ability to control the game; while the very experienced Park is even more accurate and ruthless in controlling the net area, not mentioning his ability of returning hard smashes which would be disasters for others. In the Thomas game, Park reads the Indo's smashes so well that it seems he can return them to wherever he likes. Anyway, I would say that Park/Kim answers the question like "what would it be like if there are two Kim Doonmoons", since seems to me Kim is a modernized version of Park: faster, more powerful, although may not be as good in some subtle techniques.
I watched the Olympic 1996 XD final between Park/Ra and Kim/Gih. Before the commentator said it's the mentor against the student. After the match, the commentator also said the student beated the mentor. I wonder if Park's really Kim's mentor.
Been a fan of Park/Kim in MD for the longest time. I think Kim is the stronger server than Park. IMHO, his serve action has a lot of disguise and probably still the best today. Most people forget that the serve is the most important shot in the game... From what I have seen of them together in finals play, it seems to me that Kim generally holds the game together with encouragements and so forth when the chips are down.
You're correct Narnia. I got side tracked thinking Kim in the initial thread was Kim Moon Soo.. Park's regular partner in MD. That pair is truly a legend...
