For those visitors in HK in June/July, the HK annual badminton championships are under way. I've selected some dates when the top players will be in action. 18 Jun. location - Wai Tsuen Sports centre in Tsuen Wan. Nearest subway - Tsuen Wan (red line) 20 Jun. location - Lai Chi Kok Sports Centre. Nearest subway - Mei Foo (red line) 21 Jun. location - Hiu Kwong Street Sports Centre. Nearest Subway - Kwun Tong (green line) (you will have to walk partway up a hill) All matches start at 1915 and several matches are played up to 2200. In the top grade matches, most of the HK squad and some ex-HK squad players play. There are other matches of other grades being played at the same times. Those respective competitions will be in their final stages so there will be other pretty good matches to be seen. The final of the 'starter level' will be at the venue of the 20 Jun. This really is a misnomer because there are some very good people entering. One of the competitors(a junior player) got through 3 rounds of the HK Open last year!! The grand finals of the top grade is on the 21 July (Sun) at Queen Elizabeth stadium in Causeway Bay. Don't have the time yet but probably about 2pm start. It's a ticketed event but relatively inexpensive. This is the same stadium where the '96 and '98 Thomas/Uber cups were played. The earlier dates are open to public so just go along, find a seat and enjoy the badminton on offer. I might be around on a few of those dates (observing..not playing) so if you hear any bilingualists in Chinese & English, it might be me! Don't be shy of asking!!!!!!
One of my coach Chan Kin Ngai (he had entered the final 16 in Olympus men's single in 90) will play in 18 June in both men's double and mixed double - against the top seed Angus in both games !
Any Website of the Event? Hi Guys, I am just curious if there are websites out there that have information on the HK Championships. Thanks in advance. Pete
Not that I know of. Heard that HKBA will bring out a website scheduled in August. It's supposed to have a lot of information. I think it will only be in Chinese.
Would you know if any of the events would be taped and if they'd be for sale via internet or mail order?
Good question. What do think the level of H.K.'s open? How does it compare to say U.S.'s? I think USBA has tapes for U.S. Open. Junkies like us may want to buy. Furthermore, what's the cost of taping it? Once taped, you'd need virtually no inventory. Just copy one whenever you've an order. What about TV stations? Would some of these tourneys be televised (I really don't know how big this tourney is)? If they do, the TV. companies already have the tapes....
Ahh, I think you've misinterpreted my original thread. The HK annual badminton Championships are the closed championships only for people in HK. The HK Open is a one star tournament played in November and is not the subject of my thread. BTW, that hasn't been televised since the financial crisis.
Just wondering, but is there any more competition after the 22nd of June?!?!?!Other then the 21st of July and do you have to buy tickets or is it opened to everyone?
"Do players like Wang Chen and Agus Haryanto eligible to play?" Yes! their names are in the draw. "Just wondering, but is there any more competition after the 22nd of June?!?!?!Other then the 21st of July and do you have to buy tickets or is it opened to everyone?" Be careful of the dates! There's no match on the 22nd June! I only said 18 (tues), 20 (thurs), 21 (fri) of June. The 21 June is the semifinal stage of MS, MD, MxdD, LS. There are no other matches until the 21 Jul (Sun) - finals day. Apart from finals day, NO tickets are required....i.e. free viewing. Quite a lot of local badminton enthusiasts go to just enjoy watching the top HK players in action.
In 2003..... we have the same tournament coming up this year. OK, so again, I have chosen the dates of the top level matches for anybody who is interested or around in HK. 16 April 2003 (wed). Starts at 1915h sharp - location Pei Ho Sports centre (up about 5 or 6 floors in the building), nearest subway station 'Shum Shui Po'. (5 mins walk). In Kowloon. 17 April 2003 (thurs). Start at 1915 sharp - location HK Park Sports centre, near HK park in Admiralty. It's right next to The Peak Tram. I think there is a bus from Admiralty and Central. It is possible to walk up from Admiralty station, through Pacific Place shopping centre (need to go up the escalators). The finals are on 25/ May 2003 (sun) funnily enough, the time isn't stated). The venue is Queen Elizabeth stadium in Wan Chai. (the venue of previous HK Opens, WGPF 1988, Thomas Cup '96 & '98)
Can 1 ob u guyz in HK go 2 da tournament n tape it????????? plz really apreciate it... if u do tell me
err, I'm not sure what you are trying to say but perhaps you can refer to the post I made midway through about it being televised or rather not being televised
Re: In 2003..... As far as I know, there are matches on 15-Apr in HK Park as well, right ? I know this because Chan Kin Ngai and some of the female players of my club (they are very good amature female players in HK, probably no one except those in Sports Institute can beat them) will play on that day. Will you play in these days as well ?
Re: Re: In 2003..... In the singles, I had bad draws and came up against the 2nd seeds very early on. Lost in straight games but gave a decent account of myself. In the doubles, we got to the last 16. All players by that stage are good. My partner didn't have such a good day though. He was pretty disappointed with his play - not the fact that we lost, but because his 'variation' was poor. Mr Ng of Luxis comments by that stage, all pairs are fairly equal in skills but it's a matter of using those skills with variety. Even so, we lost 17-15, 15-8. I think the match took over 50 mins to complete so it was pretty strenuous. The match on the adjacent court took less time than us to complete 3 games!
Last night, Ricky and I were watching some of the matches. Like I said before, I got knocked out in the last 16 of the intermediate division men's doubles. I was quite interested to see our opponents having reached the s/f stage. Had a quick chat with one of the guys. He said that playing us was harder than their q/f match (nice to know!). Their s/f was another battle going to 3 sets with the final game 15-13, I think. It was very enjoyable to watch. I was a bit surprised my partner and I got so many points from them in the first place after watching this match. The longest match by far was the top division men's singles s/f. Agus Hariyanto vs Johan Hadikusuma. 3 sets again. This went on for absolutely ages....2 hours (I confirmed with somebody today). There were lots of changes of serve and varying lengths of rallies. In contrast to last years match between both players, there were less net rallies. Not sure why this would be so. Maybe problems adapting to the shuttle perhaps in a different public court environment. Funnily enough, a couple of people said the match wasn't as good as last years match. In fact overall, the matches and atmosphere was not so good. Maybe the variation in the play was less then before. Maybe its because of SARS that people are generally more depressed. In the other men's singles s/f, Ng Wei played Chen Yang. CY is actually a player from SiChuan province in China (former no.1). Maybe he's in HK as a sparring partner. He's a guy with big smash. Ng Wei's defence was pretty good, in fact very good. Reached a lot of shuttles on his defence. He also looked very comfortable in coping with Chen Y's speed. Ng ran out a comfortable victory after tiring his opponent out. There were other matches but these were the ones that I concentrated on watching more...
