Director Park Joo-bong puts down the baton in JapanJapan Association announces appointment of junior national team coach to replace him
Oct 01, 2024
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The Badminton Japan Association held a press conference on the 1st and appointed Hitoshi Ohori as its successor after Park Joo-bong finished his term as the head coach of the national team by December this year," the official announcement said.
As a result, Park will retire from the Japanese national team, which he led right after the 2004 Athens Olympics. Coach Park is a legend who led the first heyday of Korean badminton in the 1980s and 1990s.
After winning the men's doubles gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when badminton was first adopted as an official sport, he became the first Korean to win the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Hall of Fame in 2001 in recognition of his ability to dominate the world stage by winning 72 international competitions.
For Japan, which declared a major innovation after winning a 'no medal' at the 2004 Athens Olympics, 'Legendary Park Joo-bong' was a leader he wanted to catch. Park, who was serving as a badminton preacher (instructor) on the world tour after completing the Malaysian national team (1999-2002), began his first career in Japan with Japan's powerful 'Love Call'.
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Coach Park gave Japan its first medal (a silver medal in women's doubles) at the 2012 London Olympics, and the 2016 Rio Olympics added one bronze medal (a women's singles) along with the first gold medal (a women's doubles) to achieve the highest record ever.
The record-high performance march continued. At the 2018 World Championships, he won two gold, silver, and bronze medals, and at the 2019 World Championships, he also won two gold, three silver, and one bronze, upgrading his best performance ever.
Coach Park, who won only one bronze medal at the '2020 Tokyo Olympics' and two bronze medals at the last Paris Olympics, will leave with a golden achievement in Japanese badminton history.
The Badminton Japan Association will support the national team as an advisor because Park will have a contract period with the association until March next year when he finishes his term (end of December 2024)", he explained.
Hitoshi Ohori (56), who was appointed as Park's replacement, is a leader who also serves as the head coach of the Japanese junior national team and the business team Tonami Unsu, and plans to launch a new system in January next year to target the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
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