This year her physical is improved a lot so she can handle the longer match Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
i wish INA ws player can learn from RI (RI from Ratchanok Intanon can be spell Republik Indonesia too) haha just kidding
So, now that she is at the top of the rankings, Ratchanok "May" Intanon has finally won approval for her boyfriend! Congratulations, Pannawit "Tawan" Thongnuam. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/lif...-will-be-formidable-badminton-t-30284193.html
This past month really changed how I see her chances. Now I put her on the top 4 players that have the biggest chance to grab the gold medal, the other three would be LXR, Okuhara, and Marin (no particular order) I will follow her until the last superseries before Olympic, which are INA & AUS open, to see who is leading the women singles pack.
http://www.thestar.com.my/sport/badminton/2016/04/21/world-no-1-ratchanok-gets-her-wish-from-pm/ Thursday, 21 April 2016 | MYT 9:00 PM World No. 1 Ratchanok gets her wish from PM Prayer answered for Ratchanok. File photo of the Thai after winning the Singapore Open - Epa BANGKOK: Thai badminton sensation Ratchanok Intanon has visited Prime Minister Prayut Chanocha at the Government House and asked for help in getting her Chinese coach Xie Zhuhua Thai citizenship. Ratchanok, who captured three straight World Superseries titles in three weeks – the Indian Open, Malaysian Open and Singapore Open – is now officially the world No. 1 according to the Badminton World Federation’s weekly ranking released on Thursday. The 21-year-old from Yasothon was accompanied by Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul, president of the Badminton Association of Thailand; Kamala Thongkorn, manager of Ratchanok’s home club Ban Thong Yod; her coach Pattapol Ngernsrisuk; and Chinese coach Zhuhua. Prayut lauded the Asian champion on her remarkable success, particularly in moving to the top of the world ranking. “I would like to congratulate Nong May (Ratchanok) on her resounding success to emerge as world No 1. I watched all three tournaments Nong May competed in.” Prayut thanked the champion and her supporters for bringing success and happiness to all Thais during the Songkran festival. “Win or lose, it’s up to your heart. Don’t put any pressure on yourself and keep physically fit to keep your title as long as possible,” said Prayut, adding that he would assign officials to work on legal processes to meet the request for her Chinese coach. The Prime Minister presented the 2013 world champion a blazer and a Pakhaoma-patterned hand bag as souvenirs. He also sparred with Ratchanok in front of the Thai Khu Fah Building. — The Nation/Asia News Network
Made a short compilation of May's matches during the last couple of weeks. Hope you enjoy Unfortunately it is blocked in some countries because of bwf content.
I hope she can perform well as the world number 1. Sometime, it can be huge pressure for some people.
I believe she has passed through this pressure block thing. After winning world champ in 2013, she had a very poor 2014, likely due to pressure of being a world champ and everyone more pumped up when play against her. While 2015 was better with her winning a couple of titles, her fitness was a major cause of concern. But now in 2016, she seems to overcome this and even have the confident and ambition to be world no. 1.
INA has too many good food, WS player can't stand to cemilan... just kidding. Besides, they are not mentally strong anyway. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
What if INA had granted the great coach, Tang Xian Hu, his citizenship in the past. INA MS great tradition would have lasted for a long time. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
This is what I am afraid before. After winning three tournaments in a row and finally becoming world number 1, she succumb to the pressure and becoming the only seeded WS player failed to reach QF.
Someone definitely earned his bragging rights as he posted in a Chinese badminton forum back in 2013 regarding Inthanon’s on court behaviour back then. http://bbs.badmintoncn.com/thread-373585-1-1.html my humble translation; “I just can’t get it out of my mind that Inthanon isn’t on some kind of performance-enhancing drugs. Her speed and stamina are just too good, seem to be very excited and yet not showing any signs of nerve at all, even smiling with no appearing reason. I know it’s not nice to think of such a lovely girl, but had she ever behaved like this before?”
She was three times world junior champion so that's quite a lot of experience. As for speculation about performance enhancing drugs, you can write that about any athlete and brag about true positives. But does anybody brag about getting it wrong?
I'm afraid the real serious problem is not with false positives (or even false negatives) but how many drug cheats or dopers get away with it. This articles is revelatory, i.e. what the database reveals http://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/33749208 So much so that I very much hope this scientist's new testing method works and is adopted http://www.theargus.co.uk/education/14406757.Scientist_s_new_method_could_catch_more_drugs_cheats/ (an extract follows) Instead of looking for traces of illegal drugs in urine and blood samples, he is studying RNA – or Ribonucleic acid – which together with DNA and proteins is essential for all forms of life. He has discovered drugs can leave a tell-tale signature in RNA which is visible for many months and even years after the athlete has doped. He said: “At present testers can detect a droplet in the size of an Olympic swimming pool. “But the problem is most drugs leave the system in 48 hours. “So although the tests are incredibly sophisticated, the drugs have already left the body so there is no trace. But I can detect the drug after it has left the system and that is how we will catch the cheats. “There is no point looking for the drugs, we need to look at what is left behind.”... ... The last few decades, he explained, have seen dopers and the testers continually trying to outdo each other. Almost like an arms race, as soon as the testers find a way to catch dopers, they find a more sophisticated way to evade detection. But Prof Pitsiladis hopes his pioneering work will land the knockout blow for the testers once and for all. His method of testing differs from those currently used as he is not searching for the drug in the athlete’s system. The folly of the traditional system is highlighted in the case of American cyclist Lance Armstrong, who was only caught in 2012 after eight years of doping. He and his teammates got away with what was described by WADA as “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme sport has ever seen” by exploiting a major weaknesses of the current system.
Actually , the main worry is Ratchanok Intanon was tested positive in April and then another sample was sent to be tested again at a lab in Japan where it's unknown when the results will be available while the Rio Olympics is just weeks away. I mean if the final outcome is only made known after Rio OG and it turns out negative, she's cleared , fine, all's well that ends well, but if positive, I'd feel sorry not only for her but also for her opponents who were defeated by her.
Wow, that's a brilliant idea - looking for differences in RNA levels to detect the body's answer to doping . But it could prove to be very hard to really establish a test like this as the very nature of RNA is that it is very unstable, easily degraded by RNases etc.