- 1979 Thomas Cup
The 1979 Thomas Cup was the 11th edition of the
Thomas Cup competition, the world championship of men's international teambadminton . The final rounds contested by qualifying zone winners and defending champion Indonesia were held inJakarta ,Indonesia in late May and early June. First played in 1948-1949, the Thomas Cup competition was held every three years until 1982, and since then has been held every two years. For more information on the format of the Thomas Cup competition over the years see Wikipedia's general article on theThomas Cup .Indonesia won its seventh title after beating Denmark in the final round.
Teams
21 teams from 4 regions took part in the competition. As defending champion, Indonesia skipped the Qualifications and the first round, and played directly in the second round (semifinal) of the Inter-Zone Ties.
;Australasian zone
*"bd|INA"
*bd|JPN
*bd|NZL
*bd|AUS;Asian zone
*bd|IND
*bd|PAK
*bd|THA
*bd|MAS;European zone
*bd|ENG
*bd|SCO
*bd|NED
*bd|NOR
*bd|BEL
*bd|GER|name=FR Germany
*bd|DEN
*bd|SWE;Panamerican zone
*bd|CAN
*bd|PER
*bd|USA
*bd|MEX
*bd|ROCQualification (Intra-zone) summary
Political disputes played a significant role in the 1978-1979 Thomas Cup series. Though
The People's Republic of China had been producing players of astonishing ability since the mid 1960's, its entry into theInternational Badminton Federation (now theBadminton World Federation ) had been delayed for years over theTaiwan issue. In 1978 the PRC took the step of fostering a rival international badminton organization and running its own version of a world championship (for individual players) in 1979. The fallout over these developments reached into the Pan American zone of Thomas Cup which Taiwan (Republic of China) had entered. Drawing Mexico, Taiwan agreed to drop out of the competition when the Mexican Association protested against its entry. Strangely, Mexico then defaulted the zone final to Canada [Pat Davis. The "Guinness Book of Badminton" (Enfield, Middlesex, England: Guinness Superlatives Ltd., 1983) 126.] which, effectively, won the zone by squeezing past the USA in the semifinal 5–4. In nine Thomas Cup meetings between Canada and the United States it was the first time in which no player over 30 participated in the tie ["Thomas Cup Semi-final Match," "Badminton USA", January 1979.] .The Asian zone all but disappeared in the political upheaval, as four national teams, including traditionally strong Thailand, either withdrew or were scratched from the competition. This left only India to visit Malaysia in a replay of their 1976 tie (team match), which Malaysia had won after trailing 1–4. Those young Malaysians, improbably, had gone on to reach the tournament final but none had since developed into true world class stars. Thus India, on the strength of three wins by
Prakash Padukone , was able to avenge its 1976 loss in another extremely close contest (5–4) and win the Asian zone for the first time since 1955. ["Thomas Cup Results," "World Badminton", May 1979, 8.]Competing in the Australasian zone for the first time since the 1966-1967 series, Japan encountered strong opposition from host New Zealand but survived 5–4. It was
Richard Purser 's sixth Thomas Cup campaign for the Kiwis. The Japanese then went on to shut-out Australia in the zone final, despite some close matches. ["Thomas Cup Draw," "World Badminton", January 1979, 12.]In the European Zone, England could not take advantage of a fine performance by Ray Stevens (winning only matches where he participated), and went down to Sweden 3–6. The Swedes, however, were beaten in the final for the fourth consecutive time by Denmark 2–7. It was the last of five occasions in which Denmark's
Svend Pri and Sweden'sSture Johnsson played on opposite sides of a Thomas Cup tie, though they did not play directly against each other this time. YoungMorten Frost for Denmark andThomas Kihlstrom for Sweden were the leading performers in the contest. [Davis, 126.] ["Thomas Cup Results," "World Badminton", May 1979, 8.]Inter-zone playoffs
The inter-zone ties (team matches) were hosted by defending champion Indonesia at
Jakarta in late May and early June. Contesting in an out-bracket tie for the right to play Indonesia in the semifinals, Japan decisively defeated Canada 8–1. U.S. bornPat Tryon scored the lone point for the Canadians. The first semifinal tie pitted Denmark against India in what might have been expected to have been a very close encounter. Typically talented, Danish squads had also, typically, struggled in the tropical heat and humidity. This time, however, Denmark came through in the uncongenial climate 7–2; the pivotal match probably being wily veteranSvend Pri 's inspiring victory over the much youngerPrakash Padukone (less than a year before Padukone's triumph at the All-England Championships).The second semifinal presented Japan with the daunting task of facing a powerhouse Indonesian squad in an Indonesian setting. Moreover these Japanese players, especially in singles, were not as internationally accomplished as the highly competitive Japanese stars of a decade earlier. It came as quite a surprise, then, when Japan's number one singles player,
Kinji Zeniya , began the series by racing off to a 14–9 lead on reigning All-England championLiem Swie King . This, however, was as close to a victory as Japan came. King recovered to win the game 17–16 and nearly blanked Zeniya in the second game. Fighting hard throughout, the Japanese were successively worn down by better players who were also more accustomed to the tropical conditions. It was the first time that Japan had been on the losing side of a Thomas Cup shut-out. Thus for the fourth time, the third in a championship tie, Indonesia and Denmark squared-off in Thomas Cup competition. [Davis, 126, 128.] ["Indonesia Smashes Denmark 9–0," "World Badminton", October 1979, 4, 5.]First round
References
* [http://tangkis.tripod.com/thomas/final79.htm Smash: 1978-79 Thomas Cup - Final Round]
External links
* [http://www.internationalbadminton.org/tc_1978-79.html Thomas Cup (1978-79) Results] at "
Badminton World Federation "
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