Here's some badminton trivia from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games The longest match was between China's Chen Jin and Korea's Lee Hyun-Il for the Men's Singles Bronze Medal. The contest see-sawed for a whopping 79 minutes The shortest match was between Malaysia's Wong Mew Choo and South Africa's Kerry Lee Harrington in the Women's Singles Round of 32. The story ended in just 18 minutes The shortest encounter was between China's Lu Lan and Mauritius' Karen Foo Kune in the Women's Singles Round of 32. The Mauritian girl retired from the match after just 13 minutes
The Long & Short Of It Here's the list of the longest and shortest matches by event: The Longest Matches ---------------------- Men's Singles: 79 minutes Bronze Medal Match - Chen Jin (China) Vs Lee Hyun-Il (Korea) 21-16, 12-21, 21-14 Men's Doubles: 61 minutes Bronze Medal Match - Lee Jae-Jin & Hwang Ji-Man (Korea) Vs Lars Paaske & Jonas Rasmussen (Denmark) 13-21, 21-18, 21-17 Round of 16 - Keita Masuda & Tadashi Ohtsuka (Japan) Vs Alvent Chandra Yulianto & Luluk Hadiyanto (Indonesia) 19-21, 21-14, 21-14 Women's Singles: 71 minutes Final - Zhang Ning (China) Vs Xie Xingfang (China) 21-12, 10-21, 21-18 Women's Doubles: 65 minutes Quarterfinal - Miyuki Maeda & Satoko Suetsuna (Japan) Vs Yang Wei & Zhang Jiewen (China) 8-21, 23-21, 21-14 Mixed Doubles: 76 minutes Round of 16: Nathan Roberston & Gail Emms (Great Britain) Vs Zheng Bo & Gao Ling (China) 21-16, 16-21, 21-19 The Shortest Matches ---------------------- Men's Singles: 21 minutes Round of 32 - Park Sung-Hwan (Korea) Vs Edwin Ekiring (Uganda) 21-5, 21-8 Men's Doubles: 20 minutes Round of 16 - Howard Bach & Bob Malaythong (USA) Vs Chris Dednam & Roelof Dednam (South Africa) 21-10, 21-16 Women's Singles: 18 minutes Round of 32 - Wong Mew Choo (Malaysia) Vs Kerry Lee Harrington (South Africa) 21-4, 21-4 Women's Doubles: 20 minutes Round of 16 - Cheng Wen-Hsing & Chien Yu-Chin (Taipei) Vs Chantal Botts & Michelle Edwards (South Africa) 21-6, 21-12 Mixed Doubles: 24 minutes Round of 16 - Robert Mateusiak & Nadiezda Kostiuczyk (Poland) Vs Georgie Cupidon & Juliette Ah-Wan (Seychelles) 21-8, 21-19
Two-Timing The Women's Singles Round of 16 match between Xie Xingfang and Olga Konon finished at exactly the same time as the Men's Singles Round of 32 match between Lin Dan and Ng Wei (on the adjacent court). Maybe Lin & Xie had planned to leave the stadium together
Yeah, Watch This On the day Jonas Rasmussen & Lars Paaske played against Lee Yong-Dae & Jung Jae-Sung, the BWF big guns brought in a few IOC big guns to watch 'the world's fastest racquet sport' played by 'the world's fittest players'. Of course, there's little better than a top-level Men's Doubles match to show off the sport To the BWF's horror, there was a player with an obviously large pot-belly playing a Mixed Doubles match on the first court (That was Georgie Cupidon of the Seychelles XD team.)
Take Your Time, Please In the Men's Singles Semifinal between China's Lin Dan and Chen Jin, the rally for just the second point had a total of 92 strokes!
Is Taufik the one and only defending champion got eliminated in 1st round? In context of badminton in Olympics history, of course. Very shameful. Just like France in 2002 FIFA WC.
On a strict interpretation, Taufik Hidayat was eliminated in the 'second' round - the Round of 32 - as the Men's Singles began with the Round of 64. However, it would be correct to say that the defending champion was eliminated in 'his first match'
Toil & Sweat - Rewarded The player who battled the longest on court and was successful is China's Yu Yang. She played for 7hrs 9mins - and won the WD Gold and the XD Bronze. Second in this is Korea's Lee Hyo-Jung. She played for 5hrs 48mins - and won the XD Gold and the WD Silver. Third in this is Indonesia's Maria Kristin Yulianti. She played for 5hrs 21mins and went home with the WS Bronze.
Toil & Sweat - Unrewarded The player who battled the longest on court and was not successful is Korea's Lee Hyun-Il. He played for 4hrs 37mins and was left heartbroken The others topping this unfortunate category are Indonesia's Vita Marissa (4' 05"), China's Lu Lan (3' 34") and Indonesia's Flandy Limpele (3' 25"). Strangely, Denmark's Lars Paaske & Jonas Rasmussen and Japan's Miyuki Maeda & Satoko Suetsuna spent the same amount of time in their quest for a medal. Both spent 3hrs 16mins and both finished without a medal
That Was Quick The Beijing record for 'Gold in the Shortest Time' goes to Korea's Lee Yong-Dae & Lee Hyo-Jung. They took only 2hrs 37mins to grab the Mixed Doubles gold. In contrast, their countryman Lee Hyun-Il spent two hours more than them to win nothing
If I'm not mistaken, it's cos Taufik was the only defending MS champion to make to OG again the next edition. The other MS winners retired after their gold medal wins, they werent that young either.
Faster Still The Beijing record for 'A Medal in the Shortest Time' goes to China's Cai Yun & Fu Haifeng. They took only 2hrs 27mins to grab the Men's Doubles silver. In contrast, their team-mate Lu Lan spent an hour and seven minutes more than them to go home in tears
Play Less Win More - Lin & Jin China's Chen Jin played for 212 minutes - and won a bronze. China's Lin Dan played for 211 minutes - and won a gold
Play Less Win More - Lee & Lee Korea's Lee Yong-Dae played for 200 minutes (including MD) - and won a gold. Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei played for 201 minutes - and won a silver
u must know LYD played in doubles, not singles.. 2 players per pair..while lcw played in single match..thats why took so long to finish off the match.. cannot make a comparison in this.
Lee Young Dae/Lee Hyo Jung is the only unseeded participant who succesfully won Beijing Gold meanwhile the other gold medalists are seeded player/pair : MS -- Lin Dan (top-seed) WS -- Zhang Ning (second seed) MD -- Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan (top-seed) WD -- Du Jing/Yu Yang (second seed)
