Gu Juan (; born 26 May 1990) is a Chinese-born Singaporean badminton player who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Early life Gu followed her father to Nanjing when she was six years old. Due to poor body constitution, her father sent her to a badminton school to build her up. Gu represented Nanjing and won a competition. She was subsequently invited to join the Beijing badminton team but withdrew after not being used to the weather conditions. Gu then further represented Nanjing in the Jiangsu sports competition and won the girls doubles and mixed doubles. Former Jiangsu badminton coach, representing the Singapore Badminton Association, scouted her and invited her to Singapore. Career Gu came to Singapore in 2003 under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme and became a Singapore citizen in June 2007.
Gu was part of the Singapore women's team who won the silver medal at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games held in Thailand. In 2012, Gu was selected as Singapore's only Olympic women's singles player for the 2012 Summer Olympics by the Singapore Badminton Association, ahead of Southeast Asian Games women's singles champion Fu Mingtian. At the 2012 Olympics, she qualified from her group before losing to Cheng Shao-chieh.
Gu resigned from the Singapore national team on 30 April 2014, citing injuries, tending to her aged parents and lack of progress in Singapore. Gu went to Shanghai for further studies. Sixteen months later after her resignation, she was persuaded by the Singapore national badminton team's head coach to re-join the national team.
Awards Gu received the 2013 Meritorious Award from the Singapore National Olympic Committee.
Achievements
BWF World Junior Championships Girls' singles Year Venue Opponent Score Result 2007 The Trusts Stadium, Waitakere City, New Zealand Wang Lin 14–21, 14–21 Bronze
Asian Junior Championships Girls' singles Year Venue Opponent Score Result 2007 Stadium Juara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Liu Xin 7–21, 21–15, 16–21 Silver
BWF Grand Prix The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the BWF Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) which was held from 2007 to 2017.
Women's singles Year Tournament Opponent Score Result 2013 Malaysia Grand Prix Gold P. V. Sindhu 17–21, 21–17, 19–21 Runner-up 2013 Dutch Open Busanan Ongbamrungphan 12–21, 12–21 Runner-up BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament BWF Grand Prix tournament
BWF International Challenge/Series Women's singles Year Tournament Opponent Score Result 2007 Waikato International Fu Mingtian 14–21, 17–21 Runner-up 2010 Banuinvest International Hitomi Oka 23–25, 21–15, 4–21 Runner-up 2010 Vietnam International Lee Hyun-jin 19–21, 15–21 Runner-up 2011 New Zealand International Sayaka Sato 14–21, 13–21 Runner-up 2011 Singapore International Xing Aiying 10–21, 12–21 Runner-up
Women's doubles Year Tournament Partner Opponent Score Result 2007 Croatian International Zhang Beiwen Cai Jiani Guo Xin 21–15, 6–21, 10–21 Runner-up BWF International Challenge tournament BWF International Series tournament
Record against selected opponents Record against year-end Finals finalists, World Championships semi-finalists, and Olympic quarter-finalists
Victoria Na 1–0 Petya Nedelcheva 3–3 Zhu Lin 1–0 Wang Yihan 0–4 Wang Xin 0–3 Wang Shixian 0–4 Li Xuerui 1–5 Yao Xue 0–1 Liu Xin 0–1 Wang Lin 0–1 Cheng Shao-chieh 2–3 Tai Tzu-ying 3–2 Pi Hongyan 1–2 Zhou Mi 0–1 Yip Pui Yin 2–1 Saina Nehwal 1–5 Maria Kristin Yulianti 1–0 Eriko Hirose 1–2 Sayaka Sato 1–2 Minatsu Mitani 0–4 Bae Youn-joo 2–2 Sung Ji-hyun 0–2 Wong Mew Choo 1–0 Monika Fašungová 2–0 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 2–5 Ratchanok Intanon 1–3
References
External links