Congratulations and best wishes to the following US players who will participate in the 2006 World Championships in Madrid, Spain, 18-24 September, 2006: Shannon Pohl - Women's Singles Matthew Fogarty/Dean Schoppe - Men's Doubles Samantha Jinadasa/Nicholas Jinadasa - Mixed Doubles
I played against him before, he is older than other players but don't underestimate him. He is tall (over 6') and pretty quick too.
dean is old player..I do not know why US did not send others...??WC is too hard tournaments for him...wasting US Badminton's fund..rather send young ones...
Agree as I have played against Dean 4 or 5 times. In addition, Dean's a very nice guy but really, Dean and Matt don't have a chance (this is absolutely no offense to them, just stating a fact ). The only chance the U.S. has in Men Double's is to send Tony/Halim or Tony/Howard. Anything else and it's going to be a first round loss.
I am not against him.....it is just weird that suddenly US had to send this pair instead of others ( plenty to choose from)....better send young ones for experiencing WC..Dean is not going to win or pass first round...
06 US Team for WC I heard Worldchampionship event isa self funded event. So even these players representing US, but they are actually paying for themselves for all the expenses. USA Badminton, due to limited financial resources, only paying for PANAM games, or OLYMPICS for those who qualified.
You are correct, except I think USA badminton pay for Uber, Thomas and Sudirman cup events also. From what I know US badminton does not fund the athletes to the World Championships. Only the athletes invited by the IBF can play the Worlds. You have to be in their top64 list with certain conditions. According to the IBF website other US players who were invited by IBF did not accept. So they don't go. it sure is weird that why the other supposedly top players are not representing USA at the Worlds. Actually US Badminton spend a significant amount of money on these other players to send them to other torrnaments etc, from the money they get from the US Badminton National Training Funds; but when it comes to represent USA at the Worlds they won't play. According to the US badminton website Matt, Dean, Samantha and Nick do not receive any national training funding from US Badminton, only the other players do. Matt and Dean are older players, but still play well. Samantha and Nick (brother and sister) are younger players, 20 and 19 years. They are the top ranked USA MXD team although they still are Junior National players; Nicholas won the triple crown at this year US Junior Nationals. Anyway good luck to all the USA players going to the Worlds. It is a matter of participation. If only the people who can win events play the tournaments, then all our events will have only 10 or 20 players for each event.
Nick and Sam are not the top ranked USA MXD team. That title belongs to Bob Malaythong and May Mangkalakiri. Actually, Nick and Sam are ranked 4th in the US even though they have played at least double the amount of events as most other MXD teams. Not to take anything away from either players as Nick is a very good player and Sam is above average, but they are not the best in the US. As for Matt and Dean, I agree they are way too old and not skilled enough. They even lose to our some of our junior national members. Just look at their USAB ranking. They are ranked having played in 7 events but have less points than Jack Shu and Steven Wong who have only 2 events to their credit. I know everyone dreams of playing in the Olympics, but sometimes I think you have to also think that you ARE representing YOUR country, and if there is someone can do a better job, you should let them represent. We have some very good players but they get out qualified just because they don't have the funds or time to go to as many tournaments as some others. We should be using the trial system to see who will represent the USA for the prestigious events. That way, the absolute best players can represent us.
Nick and Samantha are the top ranked MXD team in USA according to the IBF rankings. These are the rankings used by the IBF for all of their events and are used for Worlds and Olympics. Does anybody really care about the USAB ranking of players? It gives more points to Philadelphia Classic (where we have a hard time pulling together eight players/pairs to play in the Open Draw) than to the two star IBF event such as the Dutch Open. Even the US Nationals points are more than a six star event such as the China or indo Open. Go figure... Even our own US Open doesn't give a damn about the USAB rankings of any player, all that counts is the IBF ranking. According to the IBF invitations that were posted Bob/May and Howard/Tony were invited to the Worlds. But, for whatever the reason (no money in the event, not important enough) they did not play. Matt/Dean would have been invited even with these invitations, but none of the other players you mentioned would have received an invitaion any way. IMHO no body should deny any athlete from participating in any sport event if the athlete is qualified accoding to the rules. But, if you want to say, "heck with the rules, do as I say", I don't have an answer; it should be self evident. On the so called trials; one time trials can be fixed very easily, and has no statistical value. All it says is that, on that particular day one player beat the other. This is not good enough to select who is the best to play in a tournament six months later. That is why a rating system based on performance throughout a season is considered in sports such as football, basketball, or baseball, and or by golly, in badminton. Also, look at the 2006 Thomas Cup trials. An U17 junior player named Howard Shu was selected, based on the trials as USA's # 3 MS player. Howard is an excellent U17 player; but do you really think he is the third best MS player in USA? Leave aside the adult players, how many matches did he lose to other juniors in the last few months? Spending money or time to play tournaments is a sacrifice. It has to be important to make these sacrifices. If I am not willing to make that sacrifice I get no IBF points and I don't get picked for IBF events; it is simple as that, and all the competitors of the IBF events understand that and follow that. So, you want to make an exception to pick the players that you think are better? What is next; if a player says he doesn't have the funds to hire a good coach, then he must complain it is unfair, because he could have beaten the other player if he had the funds to hire a better coach. How about this? I have no time to train because I have to study for my school, although I am a better player than the rest of the players; so, the rest of the players must not train to make the playing field level. Come on... follow the rules or change the rules! To me, the bottom line: We should support all USA players in international competitions, especially the ones who are willing to sacrifice the time and money to get there.
Well, let's look at both sides of a story. 1st, let's not take credits away from our current representatives. They are very good players (might not be top of the world), and they are willing to contribute their time and effort to present our nation, more important, to promote this sport. They have every bit of respect from me, regardless they get the champion or just lose in the 1st round. There's only 1 champion in a sport event, but I believe everyone is a winner. There are some harsh fact existing due to current system. Some talented players are greatly limited due to lackness of funding or time. It's sad to see our top pros having a tough time to gain a decent job to support the family, and if they choose not to participate, I understand the situation. Badminton is still a minority sport here, which means the players did not get the respect and fund as we deserved. The fact is cruel, but we need to face it, and hope it can improve.
WELL SAID...HEAR, HEAR!!!!!! There is only one Champion, and he will not be the Champion if nobody participates!