CHN Entry List: MS: 50931 Yu CHEN (CHN) 51274 Chunlai BAO (CHN) 53053 Yanbo QIU (CHN) WS: 51281 Lin ZHU (CHN) 53057 Lan LU (CHN) MD: 51282/14611 ZHENG Bo/GONG Weijie (CHN/CHN) 50919/14607 XIE Zhongbo/GUO Zhendong (CHN/CHN) 53939/53940 SHEN Ye/HE Hanbin (CHN/CHN) WD: 10647/50253 YANG Wei/ZHANG Jiewen (CHN/CHN) 14635/50929 ZHANG Dan/ZHAO Tingting (CHN/CHN) 50925/50915 WEI Yili/ZHANG Yawen (CHN/CHN) XD: 53940/14635 HE Hanbin/ZHANG Dan (CHN/CHN) 50919/50915 XIE Zhongbo/ZHANG Yawen (CHN/CHN) 51282/50929 ZHENG Bo/ZHAO Tingting (CHN/CHN)
Hmm, looking at the list of CHN's players, most of them are "reserves". Only 1 WD pair are their "1st stringers"(well, if you want to call them 1st string) : YangW/ZhangJW...hmm, wonder why CTF is not participating..
Looks like CHN is fielding their "2nd string players/pairs".. hmmm, well, could be...how abt Gao Ling/Zhang Jun??..aren't they still playing??aren't their ranking higher than XZB/ZYW??.. http://www.internationalbadminton.org/worldranking.asp.. if the former are ranked higher, then i would still consider them the "1st string pair"...on that note, then based on the latest ranking, i correct myself as YW/ZJW are "2nd stringers"...
Well..depends on your definition of "first-stringer". If your definition is based on only 1 player/pair per discipline as a "first-stringer", then Xie Xingfang is also a "2nd stringer". In addition, Luluk/Alvent and Markis/Hendra are all "2nd stringer" since Candra/Sigit is still ranked above them. I think China's first team consists at least 2-3 double pairs in the various disciplines. For WD, I would consider Gao Ling/Huang Sui, Yang Wei/Zhang Jiewen and even the 3 other pairs such as Du Jing/Yu Yang, Wei Yili/Zhang Yawen, and Zhang Dan/Zhao Tingting as the first team. For XD, it would be Zhang Jun/Gao Ling and Xie Zhongbo/Zhang Yawen (and perhaps Zheng Bo/Zhao Tingting). For MD, it would be Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng and Guo Zhendong/Xie Zhongbo. The 2nd stringers would be young pairs such as Shen He/He Hanbin (MD), Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei (WD), Pan Pan/Feng Cheng (WD), Shen Ye/Pan Pan (XD), etc
i think u can tell the second stringers and the third/juniors by the colours of the words on the back of their shirts. in the china masters or whichever one they had where no-one turned up they had the normal first team with black writing, and then they had blue and red for the others i believe....
hmm, sure, those player are "arguably" in the 1st team(very hard to separate because they are basically "equal" in talent and IBF ranking, ie. XXF and ZN and GL/HS & YW/ZJW; and maybe even, like other mentioned, by the the colours of their name on their shirt). However, personally, i would consider a player/pair as "1st string" based on: 1. The IBF world ranking.. 2. Who do the CHN coaching staff put out there in the top team events, ie. Sudirman Cup or Thomas/Uber Cup(if there are no injuries)... As for Candra/Sigit, uhm, i think they no longer are the INA 1st MD pair, esp. after Candra left..