Young Danish duo Frederik Søgaard and Joel Eipe clinched a fantastic silver medal at the BWF World Junior Championships in Peru after suffering a defeat against China’s number one seeds, He Jiting/Zheng Siwei (CHN). Søgaard and Eipe - the latter is also European Junior Champion in the men’s doubles with Alexander Bond - lost in two straight games 14-21, 16-21. The Danes were the only European players to make it through to the semi-finals stage.

Søgaard and Eipe, seeded second in Lima, made a fantastic comeback in the semi-finals when they were trailing 17-20 in the third game against China’s Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong (15) before they scored five points in a row to secure the victory (18-21, 21-17, 22-20).

"We are of course disappointed that we could not play the game we had hoped for. But in the end we are both very proud to have won a silver medal. It was a fantastic week for us. We did not expect to win silver here, so we are very happy with the result we have achieved in Lima", Frederik Søgaard said to Badminton Denmark.

Congratulations to the silver medal, Frederik and Joel!

3rd seeded Lane/Pugh reached the quarter-final

The medal bid for Ben Lane and Jessica Pugh, seeded third in the mixed doubles, ended at the quarter-final stages. The English duo lost out to Japan’s Shuto Morioka and Chihara Shida 21-17, 17-21, 21-12. “It was tough to take that loss when it's so close to a medal,” said Pugh.

“It has motivated me more than ever and I will be back better, fitter, faster and stronger.”

In the men’s singles, Anders Antonsen (Denmark) and Vincent Medina (France) reached the last 16 stage. While Medina, the 11th seeded, suffered a loss to Chia Hung Lu of Taiwan, who later won the gold medal, Antonsen lost to India’s Siril Verma in three games 12-21, 21-18, 15-21. The 15 year-old Indian later reached the final losing to Hung Lu in three games.

Anders Antonsen:  “Anger and disappointment”

“Most of the anger and disappointment has left my body after my three game loss to Siril Verma from India. It's been a tough one to swallow and the last two days haven't been funny. I had higher expectations for my last World Juniors but unfortunately I couldn't find the needed level. Siril played a good match and I never really managed to adapt to his game! Disappointing but that's life sometimes! Luckily disappointments like these motivate me more than anything. I will go home and practise even harder”, Antonsen admitted on Facebook.

Julie Dawall Jakobsen moved into the quarter-final of the women’s singles category. The Danish shuttler lost to the eventual runner-up, Ying Ying Lee of Malaysia, in three games. The Malaysian also eased past Spain’s talent Clara Azurmendi in round four.


World Junior Champions from Europe:

1992: Jim Laugesen/RikkeOlsen (XD)
1994: Peter Gade/Peder Nissen (XD)
2010: Viktor Axelsen (MS)

The finals results:

MS: Lu Chia Hung (TPE) - Siril Verma (IND) 17-21, 21-10, 21-7
WS: Goh Jin Wei (MAS) - Lee Ying Ying (MAS) 21-15, 21-16
MD: He Jiting /Zheng Siwei (CHN) - Joel Eipe/Frederik Søgaard (DEN) 21-14, 21-16
WD: Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan (CHN) - Du Yue/Li Yinhui (CHN) 21-18, 13-21, 21-11
XD: Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen (CHN) - He Jiting/Du Yue (CHN) 21-19, 21-8

Click here for all results from Peru.

Article by Manuel Rösler. Photos (LIVE) by BadmintonPhoto.