Good to see, it's only in this kind of domestic tournament that we still get to see retired and less active players, such as Zhang Nan, Lu Kai, WD Tang Jinhua, Chai Biao, etc.
Yeah, definitely. Was great to see Chai Biao in back action. Even after resigning from the national team he is still looking really sharp at the net I was positively surprised by how well he was playing, good job by the coaches pairing him with Zhang Wen who could set up Chai at the net. Great to see Zhang Nan again as well. No shame losing to Zheng/Wang, especially with such a young partner. Hope to see ZN more regular in the future, according to Weibo he doesn't plan to retire for now (and afaik he hasn't resigned from the national team?).
All the day's matches have been played, you're getting replays now. Go here and see if you can find the recorded matches you want to watch, but it may require vpn in some cases (try different browsers to see how it goes) - https://search.cctv.com/search.php?qtext=全运会 羽毛球&type=video
AFAIK, Zhang Nan hasn't officially announced his retirement, perhaps he's waiting out the pandemic for a while more before deciding his next move. For a doubles player, age 31, which ZN is now, is not a significant disadvantage or handicap, imho. But, I'm not too sure he would stick with his current MD partner Ou Xuanyi for, as we know, it hasn't worked out very well. If not, will CBA or his coaches, esp chief coach Zhang Jun, allow him to change or pick another partner? If yes, I'd suggest he gets Huang Kaixiang, whom Li Yongbo once upon a time praised as a natural and smart-thinking doubles player, which means the latter's current partner, Liu Cheng, has to find someone else. By doing so, Zhang Nan can start all over again to campaign for the 2024 Paris OG, about three-year timeframe provided international competition resumes soon as the new pairing has to more or less but not entirely start from scratch in their Olympic quest.
Replay of Zhang Nan/FengYanzhe vs Zheng Siwei/Wang Yilu now on https://www.zhuafan.tech/251065 - thanks to the operator who keeps repeating the streaming. Just like the Chen Long vs Dong Tianyao match for at least the 3rd time already https://www.zhuafan.tech/451346
After watching the replay of He Bingjiao - Zhang Yiman, I must say HBJ is in fine form the way she bested ZYM, 21-11 and 21-10. Awaiting HBJ in the semis tomorrow is Tan Ning, who ousted Dai Wang 2 games to 1. The other WS semis is between Chen Yufei and Wang Zhiyi, who benefited from Wei Yaxin's pre-match retirement to advance. This matchup should be a cracker.
The National Games can be gut-renching for a lot of athletes and their fans. Due to its significance for both glory and money, many older athletes would tough it out for one last time to repay their local coaches and the sports systems that nurtured them from their childhood, before saying good-bye and moving on to the next stage in life. Note that coaches are on the podiums to receive their own medals with the athletes, even for individual events. For videos: On the CCTV website, the ones that are marked "央视频" require VPN to watch. The others can be viewed in low res without VPN and in HD with VPN. Remember to click on the second button marked "最新发布" to put the most recent videos first. Live broadcasts on the sports channels CCTV5 and CCTV5+ require VPN to watch. Live streaming from all courts can be viewed with the "央视频" app (e.g. on iPad) without VPN. Recordings are also available but not easy to sort out which is which. Selected videos are made available on "二郎侃球"'s Weibo channel https://weibo.com/u/7196000290 that does not require VPN to watch. Finally, the great source for virtually everything under the sun is https://search.bilibili.com/all?keyword=全运会 羽毛球&order=pubdate&duration=0&tids_1=0
#全运会# Badminton 1/4 finals focus result ( national team player ) : Chen Long 21-9, 21-10 Dong Tianyao Shi Yuqi 21-17, 21-10 Zhao Junpeng Chen Yufei 21-9, 21-17 Chen Lu He Bingjiao 21-11, 21-10 Zhang Yiman Wang Yilu/Huang Dongping 21-15, 21-14 Guo Xinwa/Zhang Jinger Zhou Haodong/Wang Chang 22-20、18-21、21-15 Cai Ruiqing/Tan Qiang Lu Guangzu 21-16, 15-21, 21-18 Li Shifeng Wang Yilu/Zheng Siwei 21-12, 18-21, 21-10 Zhang Nan/Feng Yanzhe
I think Zhang Nan is too old though and it looks like players from other countries are trending even younger,so I think China probably will follow the trend too. Malaysia dropped their World No. 15 ranked pair from the national association and one of them is only aged 26. I saw Malaysia's Sudirman Cup MD players,one pair,Aaron and Wooi Yik,the Olympic bronze medallists,are only aged 23,and the other chosen pair is even younger,I believe only aged 21 and 22. If they're going to split up pairs why not split up Liu Junhui and Liu Yuchen and pair them with others? They're still young and relatively fit,maybe a new partnership could boost them.
Only Sun Jun, Chen Jin, Chen Long who also shine brightly and talk much in senior stage. I'm afraid that Sun FX would have same fate with WZM, THW.
I beg to differ, for doubles player, Zhang Nan at age 31 is not too old. You forgot INA's Hendra Setiawan, now already 37, WR2 with Mohd Ahsan, and they just competed at the Tokyo OG, and also Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng both retired in their mid-30s, the latter when he was 33 even partnered ZN to clinched MD gold at Rio'16. So, I think if ZN is keen to try another Olympics and wishes for a new partner, I believe Zhang Jun and the hired KOR MD coaches would most likely accede to his special request. As for splitting Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen, Zhang Jun has expressed before that one of the important considerations for keeping any partnerships in doubles is the rapport and tacit understanding the pair has developed from their junior days with promising results (eg, WJC'13 and AJC'13 title winners) which carry on into their adult years ,eg, World Champion 2018, and silver medalists in the just concluded Tokyo OG. Most assuredly, no justification to separate this pairing, unwise, too disruptive; the more so when China has a dearth of really good MD pairs, only one ranked in the top 10 at the moment.
With Han Cheng Kai retiring, Zhou Haodong would be without a partner for now. I don't think splitting up the twin towers would lead to any pair able to perform better than they would, so Li/Liu are out of the question (at least imo). Other pairs you could think about splitting up are Liu Cheng/Huang Kaixiang and He Jiting/Tan Quiang and ofc Ou/Zhang. Liu and He have been playing well throughout the National Games, might be worth it to give that combination a shot. Will be interesting to see how they perform against Wang/Zhou tomorrow. Tbh, I felt like Liu had been playing better in this year, than he did in 2018-2020. Might be worth giving Liu/Zhang a second chance. Not sure if HKX would be a good match for ZN, from the few matches I can remember, he seems to play better when he is at the front. Not sure if he has the backcourt abilities to set up ZN at the front and vice versa...
Yup, it's official. Lin Guipu has formally announced he is quitting badminton as posted here https://sports.sina.com.cn/others/badmin/2021-09-15/doc-iktzqtyt6197833.shtml 北京时间9月14日，林贵埔在微博发文宣布退役。 "On September 14, Beijing time, Lin Guipu announced his retirement on weibo." I just realized after reading the posted link above that he actually suffered a series of foot injuries the past few years , about 4 or 5 times, which repeatedly caused disruptions in his comeback attempts and stymied his career. 据国家队教练透露，林贵埔受伤仅仅是因为在楼梯上看手机，不小心踏空了。只是因为在楼梯上多看了“你”一眼。让谁都没想到的是，这次受伤如“阿喀琉斯之踵”噩梦般挥之不去。在此后的时间里，林贵埔的脚伤反复了四五次，这让他一直没能恢复系统性训练。一失足，成三年恨。 " According to the coach of the national team, Lin GP only got injured when he accidentally missed a step on the stairs while on his phone as he was looking at it. It was just one more look at "you" on the stairs. To no one's surprise, the injury lingered like an Achilles heel nightmare. Since then, Lin GP has suffered four or five recurring foot injuries, which have prevented him from resuming systematic training. One false step makes three years of hate (regret)."
Yeah, your last point has been at the back of my mind but, I was thinking, instead of the usual complementary one-strong-front-court with another-strong-back-court players combo, why not try something different? What you've in mind is to have ZN at the front most of the time to set up for the powerful attacker at the back to kill the shuttle repeatedly a la the Zhang Nan /Fu Haifeng combo that won them the Rio'16 gold. However, in FHF's case, as he aged, his cumulative experience, knowledge of the game and maturity was such that he can be quite good when kept at the front court sometimes by the opponents, so much so that FHF wasn't just a hard hitter raining smashes at the back but also adept at the front court when necessary or forced to by the opponents targeting him or his partner, Zhang Nan, to keep either one out of the picture as much as possible. The problem is there is no one in the Chinese camp today able to fill FHF's shoes among the current cohort of younger MD players. So having another Liu Cheng type of power player at the back would make the ZN/LC type combo another predictable pairing as it won't be long before the opponents get the hang of their playing style, their respective strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, that makes me thinking, how about pairing two doubles players with quite similar characteristics that allow the two to blend and tick as one, thus enhancing their strengths but without glaring weaknesses? In the case of ZN/HKX combo, both are intelligent, creative , thinking players, and if they can read each other's minds well, they won't get in each other's way but would get into position and follow up with the opponent's return shots almost seamlessly. Also, neither of them are weak at the back, just not very aggressive , and if the opponents keep clearing or lifting to the back court, the two can rotate to continue the attack/smashes, or go for placement shots, or change tactics suddenly to catch the opponent off guard. Just humbly exploring possibilities for improvement that may perhaps, hopefully, lead to some novelties.
Thursday is the Semi-finals Day at the National Games. Matches will start at 9:30am local time on two courts. Court 1 XD: Zhèng sīwěi/huáng yǎqióng (zhèjiāng) vs rèn xiángyǔ/féng xuěyíng (guǎngdōng) WS: chén yǔfēi (zhèjiāng) vs wáng zhiyì (húběi) WD: jiǎ yī fán/chén qīngchén (zhōng běn cōng) vs lǐ wénméi/zhèng yǔ (húběi) MS: chén lóng (fú yán) vs shí yǔqí (jiāngsū) MD: lǐ jùnhuī/liú yǔchén (zhèngsīwēi) vs wáng yīliǔ/zhèng sīwēi (zhèjiāng) Court 2 XD: Huáng jiāwěi/wèi yàxīn (húnán) vs wáng yīliǔ/huáng dōngpíng (huáng dōngpíng) MD: wáng chàng/zhè dōng (zhèjiāng) vs wáng chàng/liú chéng (fújiāng) MS: lù guāng zǔ (jiāngsū) vs sūn fēi xiáng (húběi) WD: liú xuán xuàn / kēng shū liáng (hú nán) vs dù yue/ lǐ yīn huī (hú běi) WS: tán níng (fú jiàn) vs hé bīng jiāo (jiāngsū)
I agree that it would be worth to give it a try. My biggest concern is, that other top pairs would pin either of them at the back, like it happened with LYD in his later years. Speaking of which, the combination of ZN/HKX somehow reminds me of the combination of LYD and Shin Beak Cheol which many people would have liked to see but never happened. The lack of firepower from the ZN/HKX combination worries me in the same way, in which LYD and KGJ nowadays struggle to penetrate their opponents defense. A player like Chai Biao or Shin Baek Cheol, who can play well at the front and mid and also has solid power and variation from the back, is what I think would benefit ZN most, like the late FHF did, as you said. Wang Yilu would be pretty much the only one that comes to my mind but that seems extremely unlikely...
I am more interested in the exciting GuangDong pair of Liang Wei Keng and Ren Xiang Yu. Here is their quarter-final match: https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:4681432480809001?from=old_pc_videoshow
