GB badminton eyes China downfall By Mark Ashenden http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/8010379.stm Adcock and White are bright hopes for 2012 and beyond Britain's badminton players can topple China's top talent according to the boss of England's governing body. The Chinese won eight medals, including three golds at the Beijing Olympics, while British pair Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms lost in the quarter-finals. Badminton England chief executive Adrian Christy told BBC Sport: "We are coming in after a successful era, but we're building for 2012 and beyond. "There will be no compromise. China are the competition but we can be bigger." Badminton England's directive is developing the current crop of international players and the young prospects coming through to the Elite senior level, as well as providing a pathway for producing talent for the Olympics. Christy, who oversees the development of the sport in England and Britain, is targeting two medals at London 2012. He is looking to improve on the mixed doubles bronze won by Simon Archer and Joanne Goode in 2000 and the Athens silver in won by Robertson and the now-retired Emms in 2004. Following the lack of medals at last year's Olympics, Christy added: "We did well in Athens and Sydney and we were close in Beijing. "Although we had tough draws in China, the fact of the matter is that we didn't deliver." As well as performance director Ian Moss, the responsibility of this delivery that Christy is demanding also lies in the hands of the recently-appointed Ian Wright and Andy Wood. 606: DEBATE Can Britain dominate the world's badminton courts? Wright, former national head coach, is the new performance manager and Wood, team GB manager in Beijing, is the new Olympic team boss for London. Wood led Team GB in Beijing, while Wright guided England to bronze in the Sudirman Cup in 2007 and successive silvers in the European team championships in 2007 and 2008 and was also GB and England coach in Beijing. With six high performance centres in England and a base in Milton Keynes the future looks even brighter for the sport in Britain. Wright revealed huge "excitement" for his new role, emphasising his responsibilities lay towards talent recruitment and winning medals. "We do have a lot of emerging players but in the long term we have to compete with the Asians and increase the base of players," Wright said, adding that Gabby White, 18, and Chris Adcock, 20, were great prospects. "There have been some uneasy times but we now have to create more competition for players for the English and British programs. "At the end of the day we will be judged by this."
Both their medals so far are in XD. XD does seem to get a lot more "random" countries winning, even NZ got a world champs medal recently. Winning in the more prestigious MS or MD would be far more difficult. So UK should go all out XD and maybe WD and WS. Perhaps do some gender-change operation ? Some of the women in the world circuit dont look very feminine... Oh, and do archery or the 10m air rifle too .
Doubles is always random...there's hardly ever a consistant pair to win everything and be on top...they seem to be putting effort in XD, which is good, cause IMO it's their ONLY strength...but they might get lucky...the fact that they're putting resources to find talent will eventually lead them to finding their own Lin Dan or FHF...the attitude towards progress is great, but i still don't see them getting very far just yet...target 2028 =] No one has yet to make 2 year olds into olympian training yet....do it GB!! jkz =]
Quite....However despite the hot air, he is paid to say this isn't he? After all if he said all was lost and we are hopless he wouldn't be in that job for long would he....
fair point. i think setting more realistic targets may be better though. in any case, anything that helps improve the sport in the uk is good news.
Yeah that is true. Hopefully we at least get one medal , bronze silver or gold in badminton I dont mind Hehe
Yes GB target should be a Medal. If we reach that target, we have done very well. If we don't, then it is not a disaster, but Media coverage is driven by Medals. When Emms/Robertson were in the OG BBC followed them as they won a medal last time. Will they follow anyone next time?
Yeah that is so true - I saw them on ready steady cook once. I really do hope we win a medal in any event - this will at least definteley cause for some media to be involved. I also hope the coverage for badminton on tv is good - but I'm more than likeley to go and watch it live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV9H3EvewoQ China not invincible: England badminton coach Mon May 11, 12:34 am ET GUANGZHOU, China (AFP) – England chief coach Julian Robertson saw his team thrashed 5-0 by China on the first day of the Sudirman Cup world team championships, but refused to believe the home side are invincible. The all-powerful Chinese dispatched England with ease on the opening day of the tournament Sunday, showing exactly why they are hot favourites to win the cup for a seventh time in the southern city of Guangzhou. "Whoever plays them needs to be on their 'A' game," Robertson said, adding a win in the opening match, in the men's doubles, would have put England in a position to cause an upset. As it was, the English duo of Robert Blair and Christopher Adcock lost 21-15, 21-14 in 34 minutes. "We knew we had to get a win on the board in the first match to get the momentum going to make a match of it, but that's a big ask," Robertson said.
No offense against England team. However, I really do not see the logic behind coach's claim of upset. 1. Everyone knows that CHN's weakest link is MD. Therefore, taking the MD is the most prodictable result, and a "must win" for a few other power houses, if they want to defeat CHN. 2. Even if a team takes MD, they need to make sure their team mates to step up, to face the "dream team" (by any standard), including LD. Taking 2 out of remaining 4, is even harder. 3. If coach from INA, KOR, DEN or MAS has the above comment. Fine, at least they are talking with some "reality" behind their word. England? With Emms retired? Errr... Well, sure... Without reliable single players, I have to use the word "dream on" for any "momentum"... 4. England pretty much filed the same line up (actually, better MD from expeience perspective) in Day 2 vs. INA. Yes, they did capture MD. However, where's the momentum? Losing 4 matches and being defeated by 1:4??? Seriously, I do not think today's INA lineup can match CHN line up, and where's the logic of an "upset"?
Seriously, I think England should have rested Clark so he will be in better form when facing Japan, to guarantee their spot in group A.
LB, I agree, but he has to stay positive. IMO ENG only chances to win are MD/XD and can only win these if Clark plays both (Fitness/freshness playing twice in day), so we basically can't win both, so best result is upset in some disciplines, but this doesn't happen in all disciplines......
i think the best plan for england is to strive for peaking their performance in 2012. What they do and say isn't that significant. Even china is looking out at 2012 as per LYB's interview.
Well, to me, stay positive and talking w/o any logic is different. Stay positive can be done with achievable goals, or analyze own game, besides the actual game result. However, talking w/o any support, errr... Following his logic, I might say my local club team has a shot at the national level, simply by if, iff, not ifs...