KUALA LUMPUR: Denmark's Viktor Axelsen and South Korea's An Se Young emerged as the biggest winners at the prestigious BWF Player of the Year awards in Hangzhou on Monday (Dec 8).
Axelsen, who clinched his second consecutive Olympic men's singles gold medal at the Paris Olympics, was crowned the overall Men's Player of the Year.
In a surprise, China's Shi Yu Qi took the Men's Singles Player of the Year award.
"Thank you to my colleagues who thought I deserved this award, it means a lot to me," Axelsen said in a video message, as he was unable to attend the ceremony.
"For those of you competing at the World Tour Finals, all the best. I look forward to seeing you all in the new year," he added.
Se Young, the Paris Olympic women's singles champion, dominated the female categories, winning both the overall Female Player of the Year and the Women's Singles Player of the Year awards.
Malaysia's Cheah Liek Hou missed out on the Men's Para Player of the Year award, which went to China's Qu Zi Mo.
France's Alex Lanier was recognised as the Eddy Choong Rising Star.
List of winners
Overall Player of the Year
Men: Viktor Axelsen (Den)
Women: An Se Young (Kor)
Player of the Year
Men: Shi Yu Qi (Chn)
Men's doubles: Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang (Chn)
Women: An Se Young (Kor)
Women's doubles: Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning (Chn)
Mixed doubles:
Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping (Chn)
Eddy Choong Rising Star Award:
Alex Lanier (Fra)
Para Player of the Year
Men: Qu Zi Mo (Chn) (WH1)
Women: Liu Yu Tong (Chn) (WH2) and Li Feng Mei (Chn) (SH6)
Pair of the Year: Hikmat Ramdani-Leani Ratri Oktila SL3-SU5 (Ina)