On June 2, Beijing time, the Japan Badminton Association officially announced the list of participants for this year’s Nanjing Badminton World Championships on June 1. Among them, Kento Momota returns to the World Championships after three years. This time the Japanese team will

Beijing time on June 2, according to Japanese media reports, the Japan Badminton Association officially announced the list of participants for this year’s Nanjing Badminton World Championships on June 1. Among them, Kento Momota returns to the World Championships after three years. This time the Japanese team will attack the gold medal in three main categories: men's and women's singles and women's doubles. The 2018 World Badminton Championships will be held in Nanjing, China from July 30 to August 5, 2018.

According to this week’s latest world rankings, Momota Kento has risen to 12th place, ranking first in the Japanese team. Kenta Nishimoto and Kazuo Sakai are ranked 14th and 17th in the world respectively. At the 2015 World Championships in Jakarta, Kento Momota, who was less than 21 years old, reached the semi-finals, but lost to Chen Long 9-21, 15-21 and finally won the bronze medal. At the beginning of 2016, his highest ranking in the world reached second place, but he was suspended due to a gambling scandal and lost his qualification for the Rio Olympics.

At the Wuhan Asian Championships at the end of April this year, Momota, who returned to his peak, defeated Chen Long 21-17, 21-13 to win the Asian championship. In the Thomas Cup at the end of May, Momota Kento defeated Axelsen 2-0 in the semi-finals, and defeated Chen Long 2-0 in the final. Each of the two games gave Axelsen and Chen Long a 21-9. At this Nanjing World Championships, Momota Kento is eyeing the men's singles gold medal. In recent days, he has publicly stated in interviews: "The goal (of the World Championships) is to win the men's singles championship."

At the World Championships in Glasgow last August, Okuhara Nozomi, who is 1.55 meters tall, defeated 1 in the women's singles final. Indian player Sindhu with a meter of 78 won the championship. Although the women's doubles champion was Chen Qingchen/ Jia Yifan of the Chinese team, Fukushima Yuki/Hirota Ayaka won the women's doubles silver medal, and Olympic champions Matsutomo Misaki/Takahashi Ayaka won the women's doubles bronze medal. In addition, the Japanese combination Keigo Sonoda/Takeshi Kamura also won the men's doubles bronze medal at that time.

In this Nanjing World Championships, the Japanese women's singles not only has the previous champion Nozomi Okuhara, but also Akane Yamaguchi. This time Japan’s women’s doubles strength has increased. Yuki Fukushima/Ayaka Hirota are currently ranked second in the world, Shiho Tanaka/Koharu Yonemoto are currently ranked fourth in the world, and Ayaka Takahashi/Misaki Matsutomo are currently ranked fourth in the world. Ranked fifth.

2018 Badminton World Championships Japanese team entry list:

Men’s singles: Kenta Nishimoto, Kazuma Sakai, Kento Momota

Women’s singles: Akane Yamaguchi, Nozomi Okuhara, Sato Sato

Men’s doubles: Keigo Sonoda/Takeshi Kamura, Inoue Takuto/Kaneko Yuki, Hoki Takuro/Kobayashi Yugo, Endo Hiroyuki/Watanabe Yudai

Women's Doubles: Takahashi Ayaka/Matsutomo Misaki, Fukushima Yuki/Hirota Ayaka, Tanaka Shiho/M Moto Koharu, Matsumoto Mayu/Nagahara Wakana

Mixed Doubles: Watanabe Yuta/Higashino Arisa, Kobayashi Yugo/Matsutomo Misaki