IO 2007 witnessed one interesting situation where 2 countries dominating man badminton events. Where China being the power house in single, LCW managed to broke this domination (despite the fact that LD, CJ were absent, LCW did beat 2 Chinese players enroute to the title). Similarly, despite the fact that 50% of man double slot were taken up by MAS beginning q-final, it was the sole chinese pair that prevails. This only explained one fact-- that is, Quality is more important than quantity.

China still has the upperhand as LCW did not play LD,CY,CJ where invariably he may fall on any of these hardles. CY/ FHF has shown their class by beating all 3 top MAS pairs. The balance tilts heavily to CHN side.

I think MAS should take away some of the man double players and put them in XD event as of now, there is no man player only specialised in XD. Rest Fairuz and KKK of their MD duty and ask them to concentrate in MD. Keep only 4 pairs KKK/TBH, LWW/CTF, Z/F, TBS/Ong. The rest change them into specialised XD players, after all, there is an Olympic gold at stake for XD.

the problem is, no malaysian female can match their counterparts from china. look at how well gao ling plays.

Correct, u need balanced WD player to be part of the XD package. So far we only have Wong Pei Tty. But she needs to concentrate on WD since we only have 1 reasonably strong pair at this moment.

After 6 SS circuits, we see that the MS section has 5 different winners, this shows how strong the competition has become in this most important section.

We have Lin Dan (winner Korea and All-England), Gade (winner Malaysia), Chen Jin (winner Swiss), Boonsak (winner S'pore) and Lee Chong Wei (winner Indonesia). When the SS resume in China, who knows, it could be another player etching his name on the trophy.

In MD, CHN has started to challenge MAS dominance (2 wins out of 6), against MAS (3 of 6) and KOR (1 of 6). Yap/Rexy have to be mindful of this fact and start further improvements ahead of the Sudirman Cup and China Open. I am surprised that Indonesia has not managed to win a title yet so far.

China still overwhelmingly dominate XD (4 of 6 circuits won by GL/ZB) and WD (all won by different CHN pairs). The only XD title they lost (S'pore Open) was when all 3 top CHN XD were having a bad day at the office. GL/ZB did not compete in Swiss Open.

But the most interesting factor is in WS, where other countries are starting to poke holes into the Chinese wall. Zhu Lin, Lu Lan, Wang Lin and Jiang Yanjao have shown themselves to be vulnerable, losing not only to ex-CHN players but also players like Li Li, Wong Mew Choo, Eriko Hirose, Cheng Shao Chieh, Maria Kristin etc. And the older guards (Zhang Ning, Xie Xingfang) are starting to show some vulnerabilities themselves as they get older and recovery rates are slower.

I'm quite upset that a reply I made to this thread is gone - probably deleted by the moderator who didn't get my point and instead took it as off-topic. My posting was on "What if the next Thomas Cup will be held next week?" That was my indirect way of making conclusive remark, not only on IO'07 but also all 6 SS tournaments completed thus far, i.e., from the players' current forms displayed during IO'07 and other tournaments, which country has the chance (and in what ways?) to topple the supposedly hot favorite - China.

With the exception of WD, all the events has been very interesting. The MS and MD have been exciting since time immemorial. But the WS has improved in competitiveness, partly due to the global proliferation of Chinese players (Wang Chen, Pi Hongyan, Xu Huaiwen) and also that other countries are taking their ladies more seriously (Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, even India and some European countries; Indonesia also has some players coming up in a few years). Even when Chinese players sometimes fill all the final spots, I find it interesting to watch the early rounds. Last week, I was totally engrossed in the Hwang Hye Youn v Eriko Hirose game in the last 16 (I think), not just with the looks they possess :) but also the never-say-die game they play.

XD is also being taken more seriously now. I used to skip watching these games, but today, I found it disappointing that RTM1 ceased their broadcast after the MD. I was looking forward to it.

For me, the weakness (in terms of excitement) remains only in the WD. However, there is nothing we can do about it as the nature of the game dictates it to be so, ie. women's attack is weak and defence is strong, making long, long unexciting rallies; it's often you see the attacking side dumping it into the net after wasting energy making countless smashes. The only way to improve this situation is if other countries start making headway to break the Chinese domination. At least, if that happens, badminton fans will have some vested interest in paying attention to some of the matches.