by Ian Marshall, Editor
A four match win for Japan but the result was arguably closer than the score-line may suggest.
Li Hsin-Yang, a young man who has caught the eye in Bendigo, gave Chinese Taipei, the ideal start; he accounted for Yuta Tanaka in the opening match of the fixture (11-9, 7-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-8).
Chinese Taipei in the ascendancy enter stage left Yukiya Uda. He put matters to rights. He levelled proceedings by beating Feng Yi-Hsin (11-3, 11-8, 8-11, 11-6), before in the fourth match of the engagement, overcoming Li Hsin-Yang to seal the victory. However, he needed the full five games and only emerged successful by the minimal two point margin in the decider (16-14, 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 12-10). Sandwiched in between, Shunsuke Togami had beaten Tai Ming-Wei (11-2, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7).
One is left to wonder, had Li Hsin-Yang beaten Yukiya Uda, Yuta Tanaka versus Feng Yi-Hsin to decide the outcome would have been an enthralling duel.
Tense moments for Japan, for China no great alarms but France proved more than worthy opponents; Xu Yingbin beat Leo de Nodrest (13-11, 11-8, 11-6) to give the top seeds the ideal start. Yu Heyi followed suit by overcoming Irvin Bertrand (16-14, 7-11, 11-4, 11-9), before Xiang Peng accounted for a determined Bastien Rembert in five games (11-9, 11-13, 9-11, 11-3, 11-7) to seal the win.
Meanwhile with honour at stake, Romania secured fifth place followed by the United States, Iran and India.
Selecting Cristian Pletea, Rares Sipos and Cristian Chirita throughout, Romania, the no.6 seeds, recorded a three-nil win in opposition to the no.5 seeds, the Indian combination of Manush Utpalbhai Shah, Manav Vikash Thakkar and Snehit Suravajju, before overcoming, the no.8 seeds, the United States outfit comprising Sharon Alguetti, Kanak Jha and Nicholas Tio.
Earlier, with no changes to the selection, the United States had recorded a three-one win in opposition to the no.8 seeds, Iran’s Amin Ahmadian, Amirreza Abassi and Arya Amri; Iran. Later with Navid Shams replacing Arya Amiri, Iran accounted for India by three matches to two to secure seventh spot, a contest in which Jeet Chandra was preferred to Manush Utpalbhai Shah.
Completing the order, Russia concluded play in ninth place followed by Singapore, Poland, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.
