Ippei Kojima (born 1944) is a former Japanese

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

player who won a record eight Japanese national men's singles titles and some major international titles in both singles and doubles between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s.

Career

His game was marked by exceptional foot speed, great tenacity, and power surprising for a man who was about five feet (1.524 meters) tall. Kojima is the first of only two Japanese players to have won men's singles at the prestigious Danish Open (1970). He also shared the Danish Open men's doubles title, with different partners, in 1968 and 1969. In 1970 he reached the final of all three events at both the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and Canadian Open championships, winning men's doubles in the U.S. and both singles and mixed doubles in Canada. In 1971 he won men's singles at the Singapore Open and over a select international field at the Flare Square Invitational, a one-time-only event held in conjunction with the Calgary (Canada) Stampede, where he defeated

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's Svend Pri in the final. Perhaps the most notable matches of Kojima's career were a series of close but losing singles efforts against the iconic

Rudy Hartono Rudy Hartono Kurniawan (born Nio Hap Liang (); 18 August 1949) is an Indonesian former badminton player holding the record of winning the men's singles title at the All-England Championship eight times, seven times consecutively from 1968 to 1974 ...

Thomas Cup The Thomas Cup, sometimes called the World Men's Team Championships, is an international badminton competition among teams representing member nations of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport's global governing body. The championships h ...

, the All-Englands, and other major venues in 1970 and 1971."Danish National Championships", ''Badminton USA'', May 1971, 23.

Achievements

Asian Games

''Men's singles''

International tournaments

''Men's singles'' ''Men's doubles'' ''Mixed doubles''

References

1944 births Living people Japanese male badminton players Asian Games medalists in badminton Badminton players at the 1972 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 1966 Asian Games Badminton players at the 1970 Asian Games Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Medalists at the 1966 Asian Games Medalists at the 1970 Asian Games 20th-century Japanese people {{Japan-badminton-bio-stub