AthensMan
08-21-2004, 05:04 PM
Ya Sas from Athens!
The last day of the badminton competition today. I went to the afternoon session, which was the WD and MS Gold medal matches. It was really hot in Athens today, 36-37 degrees when I was travelling to the stadium, it was a relief to get into the nice airconditioned hall. I haven't mentioned before, but the hall is absolutely fantastic. After the Games it is going to be converted to basketball and will be used as the home stadium by Panathanikos (a big sports team in Athens) This is such a shame as it is a first-class badminton venue and would be a real boost to Greek badminton (which is virtually non-existant at the moment).
The official website said the afternoon session was sold out, but in reality only 75% of the seats were filled. I think a lot of seats have been bought by ticket agencies and for corporate entertainment, and now because the number of visitors to the Games is less than expected, there are lot of unused tickets. Last night I was in the really touristy bit of Athens, there were so many shops selling Games tickets. I noticed one or two of them had badminton tickets, I don't imagine they sold them all before this afternoon. But in some ways it is quite good not to have the hal 100% full, it allows for people moving around a bit e.g. to sit with friends, if there is a stupid handrail right in your line of sight, etc.
Zhang & Yang vs Hunag & Gao
The players were very laid back before the match started. They were joking together a little during the warm up, you would never have guessed it was a match for the Gold medal. However, as soon it the match started, it was instantly at 100 miles an hour, they were taking no prisoners. The third point of the game was a rally of about 50 shots, and it was immediately clear that this was going to be a good game. There was quite a lot of Chinese support in the crowd, but they weren't really cheering for anyone in particular, just enjoying the play. In the first game H & G were doing some great defending. Huang in particular was making some outstanding 'counterpunches' to turn defence into attack. Gao was as lethal as ever when she got to the net. The match was very good natured, there was none of the gamesmanship that has been so common at the other matches. I noticed the Chinese coach was not present at the game, I suppose it was a 'conflict of interest' for him, and China was gonna get both medals anyway, so he just let them play. In the second game both sides started to look a bit tired, I noticed Yang in particular was huffing and puffing a lot. H & G's attacks began to lose some of their sting, and Gao was not winning many points from the rear court. But Z & Y managed to maintain the agressiveness and the game swung in their favour. Gao Ling must the happiest person to ever grace a badminton court. Even when the match is going against her she seems to be enjoying herself, I don't know how she can be relaxed enough to have a laugh when she is losing an Olympic final. There were really long rallies (94 shots was the longest, according to the statistics on the scoreboard at the end), the crowd were really loving it. Anyway, Z & Y prevailed in the end, and they deserved the win.
Taufik vs Shon
During the medal ceremony for the WD the hall began to fill with INA supporters, and soon it was a mass of red and white everwhere you looked. I could only see one little group of Korean supporters. The INA fans were crazy, quite a few were in full fancy dress. I have no idea what they were supposed to be dressed as but they looked pretty cool. I also noticed a few of the INA fans wearing English football shirts (red and white of course - Man U and Liverpool :) ), I guess football is pretty popular over there. The match started and Shon was looking pretty good. He doesn't look like your typical MS player - he has quite short legs and a long torso, and he has a peculiar way of moving, he appears to be moving sideways, almost like a crab, a lot of the time. But whatever, he played really well to start with and was htting some beautiful strokes, and opened up a nice lead (7-2?) However Taufik then stepped it up a gear and won about 13 unanswered points. Shon started to make loads of unforced errors, and also he had a lot of bad luck. He was really getting down on himself. As they walked off at the end of the 1st game, Shon's shoulders were slumped and his head was bowed, and he was shaking his head, and I thought "he's lost this match already." The INA supporters sang a great song between the 1st and 2nd games, they were making so much noise it completely drowned out the P.A. system which was playing pop music and stuff. It was more of the same from both players in the second, and apart from a small recovery from Shon when Taufik got to 13, Taufik took it fairly comfortably. Taufik was cool as a cucumber throughout the whole match, he didn't show one bit of emotion, but as soon as the last point was over he broke down in tears, and was completely overcome. Needless to say the crowd went mental. During the medal ceremony Taufik looked like he was in a dream, I don't think he could believe what he had achieved. Shon had recovered from his depression by the medal ceremony, he seemed very happy with his silver. After the match some guys came and hit the match shuttles into the crowd, it makes a nice souvenier for anyone who is lucky enough to catch one.
This is my last of my badminton reports, I hope you have enjoyed reading them. I never thought I would say this but I am glad I won't have any badminton matches to watch for a while, the excitement of the last week has been enough for a long long time :)
Yas Sas, & Kali Adipterisi! (kind of means "Good Badminton!" in Greek)
The last day of the badminton competition today. I went to the afternoon session, which was the WD and MS Gold medal matches. It was really hot in Athens today, 36-37 degrees when I was travelling to the stadium, it was a relief to get into the nice airconditioned hall. I haven't mentioned before, but the hall is absolutely fantastic. After the Games it is going to be converted to basketball and will be used as the home stadium by Panathanikos (a big sports team in Athens) This is such a shame as it is a first-class badminton venue and would be a real boost to Greek badminton (which is virtually non-existant at the moment).
The official website said the afternoon session was sold out, but in reality only 75% of the seats were filled. I think a lot of seats have been bought by ticket agencies and for corporate entertainment, and now because the number of visitors to the Games is less than expected, there are lot of unused tickets. Last night I was in the really touristy bit of Athens, there were so many shops selling Games tickets. I noticed one or two of them had badminton tickets, I don't imagine they sold them all before this afternoon. But in some ways it is quite good not to have the hal 100% full, it allows for people moving around a bit e.g. to sit with friends, if there is a stupid handrail right in your line of sight, etc.
Zhang & Yang vs Hunag & Gao
The players were very laid back before the match started. They were joking together a little during the warm up, you would never have guessed it was a match for the Gold medal. However, as soon it the match started, it was instantly at 100 miles an hour, they were taking no prisoners. The third point of the game was a rally of about 50 shots, and it was immediately clear that this was going to be a good game. There was quite a lot of Chinese support in the crowd, but they weren't really cheering for anyone in particular, just enjoying the play. In the first game H & G were doing some great defending. Huang in particular was making some outstanding 'counterpunches' to turn defence into attack. Gao was as lethal as ever when she got to the net. The match was very good natured, there was none of the gamesmanship that has been so common at the other matches. I noticed the Chinese coach was not present at the game, I suppose it was a 'conflict of interest' for him, and China was gonna get both medals anyway, so he just let them play. In the second game both sides started to look a bit tired, I noticed Yang in particular was huffing and puffing a lot. H & G's attacks began to lose some of their sting, and Gao was not winning many points from the rear court. But Z & Y managed to maintain the agressiveness and the game swung in their favour. Gao Ling must the happiest person to ever grace a badminton court. Even when the match is going against her she seems to be enjoying herself, I don't know how she can be relaxed enough to have a laugh when she is losing an Olympic final. There were really long rallies (94 shots was the longest, according to the statistics on the scoreboard at the end), the crowd were really loving it. Anyway, Z & Y prevailed in the end, and they deserved the win.
Taufik vs Shon
During the medal ceremony for the WD the hall began to fill with INA supporters, and soon it was a mass of red and white everwhere you looked. I could only see one little group of Korean supporters. The INA fans were crazy, quite a few were in full fancy dress. I have no idea what they were supposed to be dressed as but they looked pretty cool. I also noticed a few of the INA fans wearing English football shirts (red and white of course - Man U and Liverpool :) ), I guess football is pretty popular over there. The match started and Shon was looking pretty good. He doesn't look like your typical MS player - he has quite short legs and a long torso, and he has a peculiar way of moving, he appears to be moving sideways, almost like a crab, a lot of the time. But whatever, he played really well to start with and was htting some beautiful strokes, and opened up a nice lead (7-2?) However Taufik then stepped it up a gear and won about 13 unanswered points. Shon started to make loads of unforced errors, and also he had a lot of bad luck. He was really getting down on himself. As they walked off at the end of the 1st game, Shon's shoulders were slumped and his head was bowed, and he was shaking his head, and I thought "he's lost this match already." The INA supporters sang a great song between the 1st and 2nd games, they were making so much noise it completely drowned out the P.A. system which was playing pop music and stuff. It was more of the same from both players in the second, and apart from a small recovery from Shon when Taufik got to 13, Taufik took it fairly comfortably. Taufik was cool as a cucumber throughout the whole match, he didn't show one bit of emotion, but as soon as the last point was over he broke down in tears, and was completely overcome. Needless to say the crowd went mental. During the medal ceremony Taufik looked like he was in a dream, I don't think he could believe what he had achieved. Shon had recovered from his depression by the medal ceremony, he seemed very happy with his silver. After the match some guys came and hit the match shuttles into the crowd, it makes a nice souvenier for anyone who is lucky enough to catch one.
This is my last of my badminton reports, I hope you have enjoyed reading them. I never thought I would say this but I am glad I won't have any badminton matches to watch for a while, the excitement of the last week has been enough for a long long time :)
Yas Sas, & Kali Adipterisi! (kind of means "Good Badminton!" in Greek)