i am counting the list of potential retiree in the next 4 yrs. MS: Xia ChenH Roslin WongCH? Gade PeterR WS: Camilla Zhang N Wang Chen MD: Sigit Candra Halim Trikus Kim/Ha Lee/Yoo Choong/Lee Simon Archer WD: Rikke GaoL it will be sad to see some of them go. but that's the way it is for the professional cycle. they must make way for a new wave of players. anybody else you think are potential retirees?
MD: Flande Limpele/Eng Hian (INA) Pramote Terawiwatana (THA)!! It's kinda sad that both formidable Korean doubles are potential retirees at the same time. I hope a doubles player with the same showmanship as Sigit would appear and take his place, else things might get somewhat boring...
I would include: Ng Wei, Ling Wan Ting, Shon Seung-mo, Lee Hyun Il, Kim Dong Moon, Marleve Mainaky, Dai Yun, Huang Sui, Kaori Mori, Kaneko Yonekura, Peter Gade, Tracey Hallam, Julia Mann and Denyse Julien. The big question is who will replace them. How many young ones do we see now? From Indonesia and Malaysia???
huang sui?!?! she just turned 23 in jan. im pretty sure she'll make it to the 2008 olympics, she'll be 27 then, which IMO, isn't that old...
Thanks reaper for reminding. But they looked much older in person and Shon, in particular, has been injured (quite habitually?). Four years seem relatively short but think of these pros having to train religiously for another 4 years! Can they last the pace? Will injuries set in more often as one gets older and what about the recovery rate? Will the younger ones appear to oust them from their pedestal? This is particularly true for the lady players like Huang Sui. How many of Zhang Ning's can we see, esp in such a talented and resourceful place like China?
Sony, Simon, Lee CW, Kuan BH? Chan/Chew could do good by then as well. Khoo/Gan... don't know about Indonesia though. Taufik is still young, I'd say. Oh, Taufik Aqbar Hidayat. And China can produce 5 Zhang Nings if they want, the pool of talent is just so enormous.
When it comes to denmark we have a lack of rising stars. Only young star is the 20 year old Carsten Mogensen who perhaps in some years will be one of the best double players in the world. But in single Denmark has a very big problem. Very sad when we have produved players the past 20 years like Morten Frost, Poul Erik Höyer, Thomas Stuer, Peter Rasmussen and Peter Gade. But thats the way it go, we only got 5 million citizens instead of a billion like in China.
As a Malaysian, I have high hopes of Lee Chong Wei and Koo Kien Kiat. I hope Gan Teik Chai can improve to form a formidable partnership with Koo. Chew is quite old I think but Chan Chong Ming is quite young and his ability is already proven. (Personally, I think Chan/Koo would be quite scary.) The depth is not there, but the thing about Malaysia is that the few who make it usually make it very big. Another thing I will be looking forward to in these few years is the progress of the Malaysian women(!) shuttlers. For Indonesia, the depth that was so apparent a decade ago looks to be missing. After Sony and Simon (whose potential is not proven yet), I fail to notice anyone else. As always, they will have great doubles players. As for their women, they have sunken very low. Perhaps I can say more or less the same about Denmark. The depth of players available is apparent for China. Not sure about Korea. I see lots Korean women players going through qualifying but even if they have the players, can they match China?
You guys seems to have a very robust system that has produced some enduring stars. Perhaps it's time to go back to the past and see what they did to come up with such players.
I think Japan has a lot of very good youngsters and might become a big badminton power in a few years... (girls at least)
On one hand I think it's sad that Canada can't produce good enough women to replace her... while on the other hand I think it's great that she can stay in "the game" for so long, and still be able to beat all the Canadian youngsters challenging for her spot on the national team. But the bottom line is that I think she's still awesome, and seems like a very nice person too.
Second to that. Winning the China's national championship in women events is probably more difficult than winning an all england.
