After last week’s mixed teams’ competition, it’s time for the individual event. The BWF World Junior Championships started today, 24 October and ends at the end of the week, October 30. This week the world’s best U19 players will face each other for the 22nd edition of the BWF Junior World Championships in Santander, Spain.  

China has had a great impact in this BWF event, as a large part of the previous edition’s winners are Chinese, however this year the seeded entries are mostly European players and none from China.  

Men’s singles number one seed is Alex Lanier (France) winner of YONEX Canada Open, European Junior Championships and Estonian International all in 2022. The Frenchman will start his campaign on Tuesday. Lanier had a bye in the first round and will play Bharat Raghav from India in the second round.   

Jarne Schlevoigt and Julia Meyer (Germany) mixed doubles pair and silver medalists of the 2022 European Junior Championships are the first seeded players in the main draw. 

Jakob Houe and Christian Faust Kjær (Denmark) the men’s doubles winners of the 2022 European Junior Championships are also number one seeded players in this World Junior Championships.

Denmark was the only European country until now to achieve a gold medal on that stage. In 1992 the mixed doubles pair Jim Laugesen/Rikke Olsen won gold, as well as the men’s double Peter Gade/Peder Nissen in 1994. After the year 2000 the only gold medallist was Viktor Axelsen in 2010.  

To follow up this week’s results check here.