Terrific games on Friday.
Hi,
The games were very exciting. Malaysia's boys double was beaten by China's pair. But, the Malaysian pair won the second game after their disastrous first game. They put up a good fight but lost to China (I think it was something like 15-10). Both teams showed some extraordinary moves on second and third game. The crowd gave loud applauses to both teams (we happened to sit among the Malaysian fans). Malaysia Tourism gave out some hats and little flags to the supporters. Some fans shouted, "Malaysia, Boleh!" But, we were not as noisy as the Indonesian team. China eventually won by 5-0. Malaysia's girl single was no match to China's. It was over in a blink.
The girl single between Indonesia and Denmark was also very exciting. Here, the indonesian voice of support and drum(empty shuttlecock container) were deafening after they found themselves in a situation of 2-1 against Denmark. They played 3 games. Indonesia won the first game. Then, Denmark won the second by a close margin(I think it is 17-16, but Indonesia tied it at 12-12 after falling behind Denmark by 8 points. And then further advanced it to 13-12. From this point on, quite a few switches had happened before Denmark won it). In early third game, it appeared that Denmark found a way to block the two short Indonesian girls' smashings by standing closer to the net. But, after a few mistakes, the indonesian girls got out of the difficult situation by mixing their smashings and clearing (to the back of the court). Also, they made very good drops, especially the girl named Polli. The final score was around 15-10.
The boy single (Denmark vs Indonesia) showed a little problem on a court. The Denmark player found himself stepped on uneven surface after a small carpet wrinkle built up under the back of the court.
The court next to their games were played by Sweden and Russia. It was 2-1 (Russia lead) so they have to play boys double. The Russians were around 6'5" to 6'9" tall. Their third game tied at 14-14. Then, Russian won it by 2 points.
Korea beat Japan and Hong Kong (2 tall Koreans did damaging smashes -- boys double). Hong Kong boys double lost confidence in their first game against the Korean pair (15-1 or 0, I forgot). They were able to block some of the smashes at their second game. Their smashes were ineffective against the Koreans in the first game, but they got through the Korean's defence at the second game. They lost the second game but at least they tried.
At the second halve, Singapore lost to India (3-0), Japan lost to Korea (3-0).
The person sat next to me told me that she was hoping that CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company; national tv) would cover the finals. No TV crew were there. Personally, I found advertisements about the event was lacking. This is one of the reasons that not many people knew an international game was held in Richmond. My friend lived half a block away from it and she didn't know it too (to be fair, she doesn't play badminton). On the other hand, I was happy because three of us were able to sit on the front row seats to watch the games

. I stayed from 9:30 am - 11:10am, then from 1pm to 10:10pm to watch the last games in the day.
From pseudo-Reporter,
Ted.