Well the dust has settled on the world championships, and once again Lin Dan has bagged yet another world title, in one of the best finals ever seen. In my opinion it comes second to the 1997 final between Sun Jun and Peter Rasmussen. Lee Chong Wei was pipped again in a major final. I really wanted to see him lift the title, he lost with a lot of dignity, and i guess that says a lot about him as a person. Watching him through the rounds he looked on top form, his overall game is there, i just think he lacks the total belief that he can beat Lin Dan in the biggest games. Top level sport usually comes down to just a few critical moments, and i think Lee Chong Wei will learn a lot from that final. It would be fitting if he could win the 2012 Olympic title before he hangs up his racket.
I was also impressed with Peter Gade. To be at the top of any sport for so many years takes real dedication and mental strength. He may have lost a bit of speed and power, but his tactical play is second to none. Of course as a Brit i was astonished that we got a silver medal in the mixed doubles, so well done to Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier. That result must have secured more lottery funding for Badminton England, and i know that funding had been getting smaller due to a poor run of results in the past few years. English badminton has been going through a rough patch in recent times, we have fallen a long way back.
On a brighter note it is great to see the BWF and Google teaming up to stream live badminton via youtube. Here in the UK, we hardly ever see any live badminton. Sky Sports do cover the All England, and the World Championships when they are in the UK, but you obviously have to pay to see this. Now us Brits can see live coverage of all the Super Series events, which is like Xmas has come early. I think it is great initiative to promote badminton around the world. I have noticed that coverage does not go out to countries like Malaysia, and i guess this is due to tv rights. I don't know what the situation is in Malaysia regarding who covers live badminton, but if it is like football coverage here in England, then the Satellite companies like Sky and Espn have all the broadcast rights, and you have to pay to watch any Premier League football, which has been the case for the past 17 years or so.
There is delayed coverage of the televised matches for the events, which is fantastic for all badminton fans. I have already watched the China Masters event, and have seen some of the Japan Open today. Once again Lin Dan has withdrawn to allow Chen Long to go through to the final nice and fresh to face Lee Chong Wei. China are very good at doing this sort of thing, i remember Lin Dan being "injured" in the All England final a few years ago, and allowing Chen Jin to win (it was Olympic qualifying year and it helped China get 3 mens singles players into the Olympic draw) This kind of thing is not good for badminton, and especially not for the fans who have paid to see the best players compete. The BWF should take a close look at this.
Saturday, 24 September 2011
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12 comments:
2 of the most famous names for me... i checked it out on youtube.
these players are GODLY!!!!!!
it was an amazing match!!!
Yeah that match was epic, 2 of the best players going at it all the way through. Youtube is great for watching most of their previous matches from years gone by.
BWF have really pulled the ace out of the bag here, being able to watch the latest events in pretty good quality feeds over YouTube is great. Particularly here in the UK which has absolutely zero coverage of badminton unless you have Sky/Cable packages.
Also enjoyed watching the episodic reviews they have posted as well, good to hear the commentators and players thoughts from the events.
Disappointing to see China making sure they have 3 singles players in the Olympics 2012 by the use of walkovers and 'injuries'. Not entirely suprising though as this happened prior to the last games as well and BWF seems unwilling or unable to do anything about it.
-Vrosh
Yep, China will do all they can to get 3 of their players into the top 4. In the last Olympic qualifying year in 2008 they did it at the All England, letting Chen Jin beat Lin Dan in the final. Li Yongbo is behind all this, and i think we would all agree that Lin Dan would have bagged that All England title if he hadn't been under orders.
Chen Long looks like he is in good form, and Lin Dan will certainly qualify unless he gets injured, so i reckon we will see Chen Jin get some help in the early 2012 tournaments to get him in the top 4 by the end of the qualifying period.
The current rankings have Lee Chong Wei well ahead by over 17600 points from Lin Dan, with Chen Long close behind him. Chen Jin is in 6th place at the moment. To get 3 in the top 4 China will need to push Peter Gade out of that top 4 position he has at the moment. That will be their goal.
The coverage on youtube is great, and i really do think that in the future, you will be able to watch whatever sport you want to by streaming through your computer to yout tv, in high definition. At the moment the BWF is streaming it for free, which is great as it must cost quite a bit of money to do this, hence the need for the help of google and youtube. Google likes giving things that are free to its users, but it gets paid with the advertising you see on youtube. More people watching badminton on youtube means more people clicking on those adverts. Perhaps the BWF gets a slice of this ad revenue.
Hi, can you do an overview on the current status of fake vs clone rackets? What's the real deal?
Thanks
Ps can you pls post the utube links of those matches u mentioned above ?
BWF YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/badmintonworldtv#p/u
check in uploads section for the older stuff, enjoy!
-Vrosh
Cheers Vrosh. The good part is that the matches are in full if you search for them, rather than 10 mins for all the other vidoes.
@Rowan, most of the fake rackets are Yonex fakes, which means they are inferior rackets made from cheaper materials. The result is a racket that looks like the real thing on the outside, but is nothing like it on the inside.
The clone rackets are typically made by established companies, and these can be good value for money. Apacs is a good example of this, although i really don't why they do this. For example you have the Apacs EdgeSaber rackets which are clones of the Yonex ArcSaber series. They have similar names, but the rackets feel very different, but they are much cheaper. Apacs make some excellent rackets of their own, so i don't understand why they need to copy things from Yonex.
Yeah, I have read your reviews on those Apacs rackets, some were quite good. Just like you, i can't see myself paying over £100 for a racket no matter how good it is. I bagged a bargain fr jjb sports last week, a Carlton solar fusion with rrp £60' reduced to £26 but got the manager to take another £10 off because the string had snapped. got it restrung with bg80 for £15, so in total the racket cost £31. Played with it a few days ago and it felt better than my old carbonex 21 :).
Ps did u get to keep all the Apacs rackets they sent to you?
Hi Rowan
No i don't get to keep the rackets they send me. We decided that in the interests of being honest and unbiased it would be the right thing to do, which is why i write honest reviews of all Apacs rackets. I pay for the return shipping costs, but they have given me a couple of tubes of shuttles to cover this expense in the past.
Anthony,
I really wish u could shed some light here. Has the recent so called racket technology really improved the game overall? I mean, can one claim that the current yonex flagship model is light-years ahead of say a 20 years old original carbonex 21 in terms of shot making, durability?
Hi Rowan
Racket technology has improved a whole lot over the years. We have gone from wooden rackets, to steel 2 piece rackets, to carbon graphite one piece rackets, and now to nano technology with titanium and carbon. The rackets are now much lighter, stiffer and stronger, giving more power in the right hands.
I would not say that the latest yonex voltric was light years ahead of the old cab 21, perhaps there is a 10% improvement in playability. The big leap was from wooden rackets to carbon graphite one piece construction.
I think this technology has changed the doubles game more than singles. If you look at international doubles matches now, you see far more faster, flatter rallies, with players crouching down and driving the shuttle back across the net. The stronger frames have allowed much higher string tension than before, and higher tension allows the shuttle to come off the string bed much faster, hence the fast reaction rallies we now see.
just like whole world badminton in this blog very love it...
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