Zhao Yunlei celebrated her 31st Birthday today and a lot of her old teammates were present during her birthday celebration. Lin Dan! Don't you a match tomorrow? Eating sweet cakes, hmmm....
Last moments of Zhao YunLei's competitive career: Post Match Interview: http://weibo.com/tv/v/FkqYOh3cF?fid=1034:9e3c904fc0cd892dea2cdea6148addc4
There was a match in the CNG where ZYL and Li Yinhui paired. Wonder how that went as well, being both ZN's partners in XD. They won the match though.
Can't find any XD match videos. She and Chen YueKun, a singles player, beat the former Asia Champions from Hong Kong and lost to Lu Kai / Huang YaQiong. Here's a news clip of her first last day being a player and the day after (including an interesting look at the officiating crew's meeting): http://tv.cctv.com/2017/09/06/VIDE9v4BTIQ19rGjETiA0Spa170906.shtml Here's her WD match in the Team Final, facing against none other than her first WD partner, Cheng Shu.
It was revealed in the video by the commentator (her voice is so familiar but I just can't recall her name) that Cheng Su retired early due to her knee injury. Hopefully, Li Yinhui in her partnership with Zhao Yunlei learn a thing or two from the queen of doubles. Now that Zhao Yunlei is finally retired,at age 31, not much to say as she has accomplished a lot in her career, no regrets,I supposed. She will be sorely missed by her fans. May Zhao Yunlei find much joy and fulfillment in all her future endeavours as she begins a new chapter in her life.
ZYL vs Cheng Shu again... it reminds me of the last National Games of China where Cheng Shu twisted her knee...
Very sad to say good bye to three of my favorite players in that Team Final. That's how it all started almost 10 years ago in Japan:
Since she can't possibly be Li YinHui, that would leave Sun XiaoLi, Cheng Shu's WD partner. Cheng Shu and Sun XiaoLi had a memorable match against Zhang JieWen and Yao GuoJun 8 years ago in the Team Final. They came back from 8:15 down to win the third game and the title. Sun XiaoLi is a mother of 1 year-old son and already a coach on the team. She is classic example of being a badminton player in China can be both a blessing and a curse. While a national champion in WD and XD multiple times and well respected by her fellow badminton players, she never got a chance to be on the national team.
As Zhao YunLei closed one glorious chapter of her life, this is perhaps the most fitting image to cover the beginning and the end. Zhao YunLei posted the image of embracing Cheng Shu after their match against each other in the Team Final at the National Games in her microblog, with the remark: "Congratulations to my dear sister. There is no need for words."
It's reported that Zhao Yunlei is enlisted as the National 1st Team Women's Doubles coach assisting the chief WD coach, Pan Li. There were rumours earlier about it but at the press conference for the 2018 Wuhan Badminton Asia Championships , Zhao Yunlei formally confirmed the verity of her appointment. http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2018-01-31/doc-ifyrcsrw1587993.shtml I shan't translate the entire article as for the most part it chronicled her career achievements except the last paragraph which I find new, worth reporting and interesting: After the Rio'16 Olympics, Zhao Yunlei retired from the national team, switched roles from player to student by returning to Beijing Sports University to complete her master's degree, at the same time she enrolled herself in the Qinghua Management Institute's (career) training program. In June 2017, Zhao Yunlei was elected as the first chairwoman of the Hubei Badminton Association. In August of the same year, she led the Hubei provincial team to participate in the 13th National Games of China at Tianjin, capturing the Women's Team Silver medal,achieving the best result in the history of badminton for the Hubei Provincial Team.
I am surprised that Zhao YL is appointed instead of Gao Ling! I thought Zhao would be entering into politics!
From Racquet Force FB! Surprise! And congrats! So that's why they both retired around the same time... Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
