Kevin Cordon (from Gautemala, of all places ) should be one of the finds of these Olympic Games At Beijing 2008, he almost did to Bao Chunlai what Ronald Susilo did to Lin Dan in Athens 2004... except that Bao Chunlai seems to be a lot luckier. In their 38-minute encounter in the Round of 32, Cordon surprised the Olympic MS 3rd seed with a very stubborn game. Yes, Bao Chunlai won the match... but not before being forced to concede as many as 33 points to a player relatively unknown beyond the Americas. Final score: Bao Chunlai beat Kevin Cordon 21-17, 21-16 (For those who have seen this match, no explanation is needed.) Cordon is just 21 years old (born on 28 Nov 1986), stands 5'11" (182cm) in his socks and is one of the best known athletes in Guatemala. He won the MS silver medal at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His current world ranking is 54. An awesome jump-smash, a very determined playing style and a solid defence are attributes that put this young man on a higher level than most of the non-Asian players. It could be that he has had extensive training elsewhere, perhaps in Indonesia or Malaysia (or in Denmark) To his credit, Kevin Cordon didn't look the least bit intimidated by Bao Chunlai during the Beijing Games encounter. In fact, he made the long-limbed Chinese star work very very hard for the straight sets win. Unless he decides to choose an alternative career, you can safely bet that we'll be seeing and hearing more of this talented Gautemalan in the time ahead ---------------- For trivia fans: Kevin Cordon was Gautemala's flag-bearer at the Beijing Opening Ceremony. This is not the first time he has had this honour. He carried the national flag at the 2007 Pan American Games too.
ah, another up and coming star. looks like i have to catch that game then, i hope someone uploaded a quality recording.
seems like bao hasnt been performing well, nearly beaten by wacha anyway, another raising european star. young, energetic, good player http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsirFP73hnc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5gxWr4AsWI
wacha is already in his mid-twenties.....I have to agree that this guy has a lot of talent...his jump smash is amazing....so he was the flag bearer for guatemala...nvr knew that....maybe badminton will become a popular sport one day in south america...
Uh oh, somebody is in trouble!!!!!! Oldhand was probably implying that because Gautemala is not that famous for badminton!!! & suddenly out of nowhere, we see a talented player from Guatemala. So thats probably why he 'expressed' that.
kevin was part of the bwf camp in saarbrucken (along with a lot of the other olympians), there's an article from the bwf site here: http://internationalbadminton.org/news1.asp?pageid={558EF1CD-69D3-4635-98BC-D83FB07CD69A}&year=2008&month=8 hope that helps
it speaks a lot about Mike, since he's a doubles specialist (actually he's pretty all-round), and still he beat Kevin (as talented as he is).
From the 2 occasions i've seen of Kevin.. ..his game is still pretty raw. He is talented, young and has a devastating and sharp jumpsmash. But a couple of things i (and a couple other BCers who watched his match vs. BCL) noticed about his game is that he still needs work on his defense and net/touch game. It happened also in this yr's U.S. Open too, when Andy Dabeka exposed those 2 areas, in their Semifinal match. But i think, if Kevin keeps on improving, Guatemala will have a future star in the professional badminton circuit..
I think Oldhand meant that Guatemala has not produced any top players previously so that Kevin Cordon should be so good is a surprise. Please don't take offence.
No problem , but I was waiting for an answer from Oldhand. As an interesting fact Kevin first sport was "fútbol" (soccer) and he began playing badminton just for fun because the gym was near his home. He began training at the age of 10 but a badminton female trainer who was visiting guatemala told the badminton federation president that Kevin has no future in badminton, luckily his trainer Amilcar Castañeda in La Union Zacapa was no agree and ask for the national team trainer support and told him: "Look him play, and if you think he is not good, we don't pick him to the games". José María Solís, the national team trainer let Kevin play at the national championship and Kevin was national champion in his category minor 11 years old (José María was Kevin coach in Pekin 2008). As he is 21 years old only, I am sure he is going to make history in Guatemalan sport and I hope in international sport too.
i saw him played against BCL in the olympic game. Kevin has the makeup of an excellent badminton players: height, dexterity, etc. I see kevin had improved a lot in just 1 year since 2007. Does kevin have good enough sparring partner(s) in Guatemala? To go beyond where he is at now, he need to play against and practice against equal or better players
Yer you are right. As a matter of fact he won a two years scholarship in Germany where he has been living for one and a half year and trained by Per Henrick Croona (Sweden) and Ge Cheng (China) and has partners from Peru, Sweden,Canada, Czech Republic, Byelorussia, Ukraine, Estonia, Austria, Vietnam, Nigeria, Uganda, Austria, Lituania and Zambia. Kevin deserves all the support from National Badminton Federation and national and international institutions who sponsor him, Guatemala spends a lot of money in other popular sport (the one I am not going to talk about here) without succesful results but with Kevin's performance I think that is going to change, I hope.