PETALING JAYA: New scoring format can make one uneasy but junior badminton head coach Jeffer Rosobin is not fretting.
In fact, he wants his charges to adapt quickly to a unique scoring format in the mixed team event in the World Junior Championships from Sept 30-Oct 5 in Nanchang, China.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) have decided to discard the 21x3 system and introduce a new format in the competition this time only for the mixed team. Each tie will have 10 matches with the first match ending after 11 points and the first team to reach 110 points will win the tie.
The second match will start at the score of the first match and continue from that score.
The 10 matches are two men’s singles, two women’s singles, two men’s doubles, two women’s doubles and two mixed doubles.
Something new: Mohd Faiq Masawi can play in two singles according to the new unique format.
One player can play a maximum of four matches and a maximum of 20 players can be named for the tournament. For instance, Mohd Faiq Masawi can play in two singles or Dania Sofea Zaidi can be fielded in girls’ singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
Jeffer was taken aback with the sudden change but ready for the challenge.
“This time there will be a new relay point system and 11 points in each match. Our players need to adapt quickly to this format,” said Jeffer.
“The players need to prepare well for this and be ready to perform their best. We believe our chances are strong because our players play a fast, attacking game which will suit this system well.
“The preparations for the tournament have been going well so far and the players are in high spirits. We will finalise the team selection earliest by Monday.”
Malaysia have been placed in Group C along with Holland, Estonia, Norway and Mongolia.
Only group winners will progress to the quarter-finals.
In last year’s edition in the United States, the team won a bronze.
The individual event will be held after the team competition from Oct 7-13.
Malaysia came away with two bronze in the individual events last year through boys’ doubles pair Aaron Tai-Bryan Goonting and mixed doubles duo Low Han Chen-Chong Jie Yu.
Goh Jin Wei was the last Malaysian to win gold in the tournament when she captured the girls’ singles title in 2018 in Canada.
THE NEW FORMAT
> Each tie consists of 10 matches – two men’s singles; two women’s singles; two men’s doubles; two women’s doubles; two mixed doubles.
>The winner of the tie will be the team reaching 110 points first.
> Only one game in one match up to 11 points (change of court at 6 points)
> The second match will start at the score of the first match (11) and continue from there on. The losing player/pair of the first match given a
minimum score of five points or the actual number of points, whichever is higher.
> The second match will play until one of the players/pairs reaches 22 points (shift of court end when reaching 17 points).
> The 10th and final match will start at the score of the ninth match and continue from that score, where the losing player/pair of the ninth match
having a minimum of 45 points or the actual number of points, whichever is more.
> The 10th match will be played until one of the players/pairs reaches 110 points and thereby wins the tie (shift of court end at 105 points).
> No player shall play in more than four matches.
