The Astro Junior Championships (AJC) U15, an extension of Astro Kem Badminton, received plaudits for providing regional playing exposure for young badminton players around Asia.

The tournament, which concluded its national level in September, kicked off its regional stage at the Juara Stadium, Bukit Kiara, on Monday with the participation of 14 teams from nine different countries, namely Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, and Vietnam.

Endorsed by Badminton Asia and Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) with support from several Malaysian ministries including the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Education, it aimed to be a platform for aspiring shuttlers in the region to develop their game.


Several coaches of the international teams were happy to be part of the tournament including Yap Kim Hock, a former Malaysian doubles shuttler who is now coaching at the Singapore Sports School.

"We are happy and proud to be invited to play in this Astro event.

"It is good for our players to play outside Singapore because we want to know how strong they are in every age category and give exposure to them.

"Singapore is quite serious about developing junior players, so it is good for the players to face strong countries like Thailand, Indonesia and China," said Yap, who memorably won an Olympic silver medal with Cheah Soon Kit in 1996.

Ragunan Sports School coach Luluk Hadiyanto highlighted the importance of young players to get as much experience as possible before turning senior.

"I think the tournament is very good for our young athletes from Ragunan, which is a programme under the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs in Indonesia.

"They get to compete on the regional arena and get some experience at the international level.

"It is important for our young athletes to get experience and play against good opponents so that we can develop them for the global stage," said the former men's doubles world No. 1.

As for Dharma Gunawi of the Djarum Badminton Club, the biggest badminton academy in Indonesia, he had not seen a junior tournament of the Astro Junior Championships' scale.

"It is very different from other junior tournaments with how things are being set up.

"I played and lived in Germany for years and no junior tournament over there was as well organised as this one," he said.

Dharma also praised the level of competition with the participation of players from the likes of China, Japan and Chinese Taipei.

"I have looked at how the participants from other countries train and warm up and I can see they are quite good and should provide us with stiff competition.

"We have good players but we don't want them to just become 'jaguh kampung' (big fish in a small pond) in Indonesia.

"This tournament is an opportunity for them to get experience playing overseas and get past any mental barrier they might have so that they can achieve success as senior players," he added.

The tournament would conclude on November 15, with the winning team taking home US$5000, the runners-up US$3000, and the semi-finalists US$2000 each.

Watch the Astro Junior Championships U15 on Astro Arena's YouTube page!