Ahn Se-young, suffering from ‘knee pain’, will not play in the finals of the National Sports Festival… Depart for Denmark on the 13th [밀양 현장]

(Xports News Reporter Kim Ji-su) ‘Badminton Emperor’ Ahn Se-young will miss the finals of the 2024 National Sports Festival. He finished the competition a day earlier than his Samsung Life Insurance colleagues and began preparing for the Denmark Open.

Samsung Life Insurance (Busan) did not include Ahn Se-young in the list of players in the match against Gyeongbuk (Gimcheon City Hall) in the final of the badminton women’s general team event at the 105th National Sports Festival held at Miryang Badminton Stadium in Gyeongnam on the 12th.

Ahn Se-young played as a singles player in two games in the semifinals of the badminton women’s general team event held at Miryang Badminton Stadium in Gyeongsangnam-do on the 11th, defeating Bae Kyeong-eun (Chungbuk) 2-0 (21-19 21-11).

Ahn Se-young’s team, Samsung Life Insurance, is participating in the National Sports Festival as a representative of Busan. With Ahn Se-young and other national team players playing as key players, they were strong candidates for winning the women’s team event at this tournament.

Busan secured a ticket to the finals in the women’s team semifinals on the 11th, with Kim Ga-eun in singles winning the first game, Ahn Se-young in singles playing in the second game, and Kim Hye-jung and Lee Yu-rim winning the third game in doubles.

However, Ahn Se-young took a break instead of participating in the finals. It is known that he did not appear at the stadium on this day and first moved to Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, where his team Samsung Life Insurance’s training ground and accommodations are located.

Kim Ga-eun, a member of Samsung Life Insurance, told on-site reporters, “Ahn Se-young moved to Yongin first because her knee condition is bad. I am also scheduled to participate in the Denmark Open, so I plan to finish the finals of the National Sports Festival today and leave the country with Ahn Se-young tomorrow.”

The 2024 Denmark Open will be held at Arena Finn in Odense, Denmark from the 15th (Korean time) to the 20th. A total prize money of $850,000 (approximately 1.15 billion won) is at stake. Ahn Se-young is aiming to win the women’s singles title among a total of eight players.

Ahn Se-young won the gold medal by defeating World No. 9 He Bingjiao with a game score of 2-0 (21-13 21-16) in the badminton women’s singles final at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at the Porte-de-la-Chapelle Stadium in Paris, France on August 5. did it

It has been 16 years since Korean badminton won a gold medal at the Summer Olympics since Yong-Dae Lee and Hyo-Jeong Lee in the mixed doubles at the 2008 Beijing Games. In the case of women’s singles, since Bang Bang-hyun at the 1996 Atlanta Games, no one has been able to reach the highest podium until the 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2016 Rio de Janeiro, and 2020 Tokyo (held in 2021 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic).

Se-young Ahn swallowed her disappointment with no medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games, which was her first Olympics in her career, but held a spectacular coronation ceremony in Paris three years later. Last year, after winning consecutive championships at the Copenhagen World Championships and the Hangzhou Asian Games, she also won an Olympic gold medal and became a true women’s badminton legend.

However, as soon as Ahn Se-young won the Olympic gold medal, she poured out her determination to the Korea Badminton Association. He raised his voice saying that improvements were needed in the national team management process and association administration.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism conducted a survey of the Korea Badminton Association after the Paris Olympics ended and announced the results of the inspection and areas for improvement. Various opinions were presented on the injury management system that Se-young Ahn talked about, the customized training system for singles and doubles, shortening the national team convocation period, life in the athlete’s village, participation in strategic international competitions, facilitating communication between the association and the national team, and improving the treatment of managers, coaches, and trainers. He said it was done.

Ahn Se-young put aside her problems with the Korea Badminton Association and worked hard to improve her condition again. Due to a knee injury, he missed both the Japan Open and Korea Open in August and September, but returned to action at the National Sports Festival.

Ahn Se-young showed the best performance in the world in front of domestic fans by not giving up a single set in the semifinals on this day, following the preliminaries on the 9th and the quarterfinals the day before.

After completing her comeback match, Ahn Se-young shed tears in an interview and revealed her emotional distress. When asked if her love for badminton grew even more during her break, Ahn Se-young blushed. After controlling her emotions a little, she turned to her fans and said, “I’m sure you’ve been waiting for me a lot, and I’m really grateful to the fans who loved my badminton so much. “I want to give it to you,” he said.

Photo = Yonhap News

Reporter Jisoo Kim [email protected]