Olympic men's singles gold medallist Ji Xinpeng led China's national badminton team to nex week's South Korean Open in Cheju-do.

The 19-player team left Beijing on Sunday to Cheju-do, Korea's biggest island to the south of the Korean Byland, for the annual event which is scheduled from January 10-14.

Ji, who beat Indonesian Hendrawan in the finals at the Sydney Olympic Games, is seeded second to world number one player Peter Gade of Denmark.

Olympic mixed doubles champions Zhang Jun and Gao Ling are seeded third while silver medals winners Huang Nanyan and Yang Wei take the first seeds seat after Olympic gold medals winners Ge Fei and Gu Jun retired after the Games.

Denmark's top player Camilla Martin is the top seed in the women's singles field as China's Gong Zhichao, who beat her in the finals at Sydney, will not compete in the 250,000-US-dollar event.

(People's Daily 01/08/01)