For the first time since 2000, the Youth World Championships return to China as the 24th edition kicks off this week in Nanchang.
The tournament begins with the World Junior Mixed Team Championships, running from September 30 to October 5. Following that, the individual championships will take place from October 7 to 13, which we will cover in later articles.
Europe is well-represented, with 14 national teams competing in the Mixed Team Championships. The participating countries include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Denmark, England, Estonia, France, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Türkiye, all aiming for impressive results against strong competition from Asia.
In last year's Junior World Championship, France was the highest-ranked European nation, finishing 6th overall, followed by Germany (12th), Denmark (13th), England (14th), and Estonia (16th).
A unique feature of this year's team tournament is the introduction of a new scoring system. Each match consists of two games per category. The first game ends when a player reaches 11 points, while the second game concludes when a team accumulates a total of 22 points. This continues until a nation reaches 110 points after the 10th match, thus winning the overall contest.
We look forward to two weeks of exciting, competitive play and hope the European nations perform exceptionally well.
Matches can be followed on the
BWF YouTube channel, and we will provide regular updates here on our website.