Badminton

Malaysia win with strange scores in badminton

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia beat Mongolia 110-48 and Norway 110-51 today. But this is badminton, not basketball or cricket.

These are the figures from the new relay scoring system for the mixed team event at badminton's World Junior Championships, which started in Nanchang, China, today.

It uses a 11-point scoring system, where 10 games, not full matches, will be played. And the first team that reach 110 points will be declared the winner.

Expect match officials on standby with their calculators and notepads.

National junior chief coach Jeffer Rosobin said his players are getting used to the format, and believes Malaysia have a good chance for a podium finish.

"Our players are adapting to the scoring and the rules fast," said Jeffer.

"I believe this system can actually help us to fight for a medal as it's a shorter version and we need to have a good start."

Malaysia will play Estonia tomorrow and the Netherlands in their last Group C fixture on Wednesday in the hunt for a quarter-final spot.

The Badminton World Federation is believed to have introduced the new scoring format because only four nations - China (14), South Korea (3), Malaysia (1) and Indonesia (1) - have won the team titles.

China's men's junior coach Chen Jin said: "You never know what will happen… perhaps this will give the weaker teams the chance to do well against stronger teams."

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