JVC and IMG today announced that this year's JVC Asian Badminton Rankings champions will each receive USD 1,000. The champions will be determined in October two weeks prior to the JVC Asian Badminton Championships on November 1 - 5. Asian players have from now up until that time to accumulate points in IBF-sanctioned events in order to qualify in the #1 position for the JVC Rankings. This season starts off with a number of notable new faces on the Asian Badminton scene while some big names have fallen away.

Men's Singles
Last year's Champion, Sun Jun, has been laid up with injuries this year and has dropped completely out of the top ten in the JVC Asian Rankings. Although he did not play for China in the recent Thomas Cup, he is planning to compete at the upcoming Indonesia and Malaysia in order to increase his Olympic seeding points, so he'll likely appear back on the JVC Rankings soon. Fung Permadi of Chinese Taipei is in a similar position having dropped from the #2 spot to #10. However, the new #1 in the Men's Singles category is Malaysian Wong Choong Hann. He's still riding high on last year's Malaysiavictory and a good showing at the 1999 World Grand Prix Finals. The Chinese newcomer contingent consists of Xia Xuanze (3), Ji Xipeng (4) and Luo Yigang (7). Xia has won two events already this year (All England/Swiss and he leads a strong group of young Chinese competitors.

Ladies' Singles
Again there are many differences between last year's final standings and the current status in Ladies'Singles. One of the similarities is the dominance of China, the 1998 and 2000 Uber Cup Champions. With the exception of Zhang Ning, who has dropped from the standings, China still has a strong grip on the top five positions in Asia lead by Gong Zhichao at #1. In the #6 and #7 positions, Kim Ji Hyun and Yasuko Mizui represent strong contingents from South Korea and Japan respectively who round out the top ten on the Ladies' Singles side. Notably absent is Indonesia who's #1 star, Mia Audina Tjiptawan, now plays for the Netherlands and is no longer eligible for the standings.

Men's Doubles
Familiar faces dominate the Men's Doubles category of the JVC Rankings with Indonesia's Candra Wijaya & Tony Gunawan holding onto the #1 position where they left off last year. They are followed by Koreans Ha Tae Kwon & Kim Dong Moon in second place with compatriots Lee Dong Soo & Yoo Yong Sung in third. The surprising newcomers in the Men's Doubles category are from Malaysia. Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah have sprouted into the fourth position with the not-so-new pairing of Cheah Soon Kit & Yap Kim Hock following in sixth. Cheah and Yap have regrouped after Yap's recovery from a shoulder injury. This category is the hardest-fought area of badminton these days with so many strong teams competing.

Ladies' Doubles
Perennial All-Stars, Ge Fei & Gu Jun of China, find themselves once again in the top position in the Ladies' Doubles category of the JVC Rankings. This should be to no surprise as they added the World Grand Prix Finals and All England titles title to their collection recently. Ra Kyung Min and Chung Jae Hee of Korea are hot on the tails of the World Champions and are playing well in 2000 and seem to be the only non-Chinese threat to the JVC Rankings title in this category.

Mixed Doubles
In the Mixed Doubles category, the top positions are unchanged from last year with Korea's Kim Dong Moon & Ra Kyung Min on top followed closely by Liu Yong & Ge Fei from China. Indonesian vetrans, Trikus & Minarti remain in the third position and are poised for a big year as they look to retire at the end of the year. The rest of the field has seen some changes with Zhang Jun & Gao Ling of China moving up from the 8th position last year into 4th this year. Chinese counterpart, Chen Qiqui, and new partner Chen Lin are still active in the 6th position and newcomers from Thailand, Saralee & Khunakorn, hope to see improvements throughout the season this year.

All players finishing the season in the #1 position on the JVC Asian Badminton Rankings will receive USD 1,000 and a JVC product. These prizes will be given out at the JVC Asian Badminton Championships to all players finishing in the #1 position on the JVC Asian Rankings therefore qualifying them as the #1 seeded players at the JVC Asian Badminton Championships.