Taiwanese badminton star to join 5,000-person world-record yoga event

Taipei, March 10 (CNA) Retired Taiwanese badminton ace Lee Yang (李洋) said Monday that he will join yogi Himalayan Siddhaa Akshar this coming June in setting a new 5,000-person yoga world record.

The event has been tentatively scheduled in Taiwan on June 21, which was initiated as the International Day of Yoga by the United Nations in 2014 to highlight the worldwide significance of Yoga.

Lee will join "Grand Master Akshar" in establishing a Guinness World Record by performing 12 asanas (yoga poses) with a total of 5,000 practitioners.

At the news conference to announce the June event, Lee, who won the men's badminton doubles gold at the 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics with his partner Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟), spoke of his relationship to yoga.

Lee said that he first came into contact with the sport in 2020 when he was looking into intensifying his training.

After some thought, he decided on trying out Yoga, which led him to realize how bad his flexibility was, especially around his hip joints.

He said that the issues with his hips were why he had often dived for shuttlecocks during his badminton matches before trying yoga.

"But after I started practicing yoga, my body's flexibility improved," he said. "Shuttlecocks I had to previously dive for became salvageable, so I decreased the frequency of diving. That was the most significant improvement."

Lee added that he found Yoga to be very helpful with muscle conditioning and body coordination as well.

Lee said as someone who has benefitted from Yoga, he would like to recommend the sport to more professional athletes.

"Yoga is actually a challenging sport that is not as easy as one might imagine," Lee went on to say.

At the same news conference, Grand Master Akshar said he was happy to be in Taiwan, praising the island's oceans, forests and mountains.

The yogi went on to advocate for yoga, stating that it is a healthy activity which healthily stimulates blood circulation.

He said that his trip to Taiwan in March was to further promote Yoga as a daily habit like how bubble tea is in the daily lives of the Taiwanese masses.

The organizers have yet to disclose where the yoga event will be held.