Just over halfway through the year-long Olympic Qualifying Period, the International Badminton Federation has published its first "dummy" list of players, based on the 27 November world ranking, who would be selected for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. There are still five months to go in the race for Olympic qualification, but as things stand, no National Olympic Committee will be sending a full complement of three entries per discipline. At present, only mixed doubles champions Zhang Jun and Gao Ling have the opportunity to defend their gold medal from the Sydney 2000 Games – Indonesia's men's doubles champion Candra Wijaya and new partner Halim Haryanto currently fall short of the qualifying mark and China's other Olympic champions Ji Xinpeng, Gong Zhichao and Ge Fei; Gu Jun have all since retired from international competition. But badminton powerhouses China look set to be the most represented nation in Athens, with three players in each of the singles events, three women's doubles pairs and two pairs in both the men's and mixed doubles currently in qualifying positions. Europe's best nation Denmark would have the second-highest contingent – 12 entries altogether, comprising three men's singles players, a lone Camilla Martin in the women's singles, three men's doubles pairs including world champions Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen, plus three pairs in both the women's and mixed doubles Italy and Jamaica look set to make their Olympic badminton debuts, with Agnese Allegrini and Athens 2004 scholarship holder Nigella Saunders both reaching qualification positions in the women's singles event. Competition in the doubles events is set to be fierce – in the men's and women's doubles the top 16 pairs would currently be selected, with the mandatory three continental wildcards making up the 19 pairs. We have certainly seen tremendous entries to all tournaments during this Olympic Qualifying Period," said IBF's Director of Events, Vanessa Freeman. "We have also seen many intermediate level players entering tournaments outside their relevant continent in a bid for qualification, which is great for badminton's global development. "Good luck to all the players in their quest for Olympic qualification." Notes: All is not lost for those players who don't currently make the cut – there are still just over five months left in which to bump up those all-important ranking points. Plus, IBF's quota at the Athens 2004 Games is 172 "beds", meaning that as some players would currently qualify in more than one event (eg Kim Dong Moon in men's and mixed doubles), some additional qualifying places will become available and will be filled using the next eligible players on the ranking list. IBF will continue the Olympic countdown with an updated dummy qualifying list once per month through to the end of the Olympic Qualifying Period on 30 April 2004. The Olympic Qualifying Period ends on 30 April 2004. For the Olympic Games, the national associations of England, Scotland and Wales combine to form the team for the National Olympic Committee of Great Britain(GBR) The host NOC (Greece) are entitled to have exactly two players at the Olympic badminton competition. If none qualify of right, then their entitlement shall be completed by the nomination of players from the IBF ranking list by the Hellenic Badminton Federation One place in men's singles and women's singles may be used by the IOC Tripartite Commission to allocate invitation places in accordance with the general process of Tripartite Commission invitations.
