China clubbed with Indonesia in Sudirman Cup

China joins Southeast Asian giant Indonesia, Hong Kong and Sweden in Group B's competition at the upcoming Sudirman Cup world badminton championships.

Group A features defending champion South Korea, Denmark, England and Thailand.

The 9th Sudirman Cup badminton championships will be held in Beijing from May 10th to 15th. 42 teams from all over the world will contend for the title.

The event is one of the world's three major international badminton competitions, and is followed by the Thomas Cup for men and Uber Cup for women.

Initiated in 1989, the mixed team championship is a biennial tournament on a best-of-five format featuring both men's and women's singles and doubles as well as mixed doubles.

China won four times in a row from 1995 to 2001 bringing home over half of the championship's eight titles.

The following is the draw released on Monday by the International Badminton federation, for the 9th Sudirman Cup to be staged from May 10 to 15 in Beijing, China (prefix number denotes seeding):

Group 1A: 1-South Korea, Denmark, England, Thailand

Group 1B: 2-China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Sweden

Group 2A: Malaysia, Netherlands, Chinese Taipei, Russia

Group 2B: Singapore, Japan, Germany, Ukraine 

Group 3A: New Zealand, Finland, Bulgaria, Poland

Group 3B: Scotland, India, Wales, United States

Group 4A: Norway, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Estonia

Group 4B: France, Australia, South Africa, Peru

Group 5A: Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg 

Group 5B: Israel, Lithuania, Turkey

Group 6A: Sri Lanka, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Mongolia

Source: CRI News