World Badminton Championship, Hyderabad

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Saina crashes out of World Badminton Championships​

HYDERABAD: Curtains were drawn on India's campaign at the World Badminton Championship following defeats of Saina Nehwal and mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju on Friday. Saina squandered a healthy 9-1 lead in the second game to lose the singles quarter-final 16-21 19-21 to Chinese second seed Lin Wang a 39-minute contest. Saina had defeated Lin in June to lift the Indonesian Super Series title.

"She (Lin) was better prepared today. She was defending well. I made a few silly mistakes but I am happy with my performance. She played better at net and involved in more tabs and pushes which shows she was prepared," Saina said. "I reached the pre-quarters in 2007 and this time I have reached quarters and I have beaten the top 10 players so I'm satisfied," she added. Saina had a rusty start as she allowed Lin to open up a seven point lead and even though the Hyderabadi drew parity with a power-puffed smash at 11-11, she couldn't keep the momentum.

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Super Lin wins battle, all-Chinese finals at WBC​

Hyderabad: Olympic champion Lin Dan passed a stiff test against Sony Dwi Kuncoro to move one step away from capturing a record hat-trick of world titles on Saturday. The player nicknamed "Super Dan" ended Indonesian hopes in the singles by downing sixth seed Kuncoro 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 to set up an all-Chinese final against world No. 2 Chen Jin.

Second seed Chen muscled his way past former champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, routing the fourth seed 21-16, 21-6 in 39 minutes in an awesome display of power and precision. The women's final will also have a Chinese winner after twice former champion and sixth seed Xie Xingfang overcame eighth-seed Pi Hongyan, a Chinese-born French player, 21-18, 21-8. Xie will face seventh seed Lu Lan, who upset compatriot and world No. 2 Wang Lin 21-18, 21-19 in the other semi-final.

Lin, 25, praised Kuncoro and was happy China will be the winner on Sunday. "Sony was playing tactfully, not allowing me to finish off quickly," he told reporters, adding: "It does not matter who wins, China is assured of the gold medal."

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Lin masters the badminton worlds with three-in-a-row​

Picture copyright:- Reuters

HYDERABAD (Reuters) - Olympic champion Lin Dan completed a record hat-trick of world badminton championship titles by overcoming Chen Jin in an all-Chinese final on Sunday. The 25-year-old, nicknamed "Super Dan", began cautiously before stamping his authority over world number two Chen, winning 21-18 21-16 in 45 minutes. Lin, the fifth seed but the overwhelming favourite, extended his supremacy in the game, having won the 2006 and 2007 world titles before clinching the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics last year.

"I'm very happy to win three times, I hope in future also I can have better performances," Lin said in a courtside interview through an interpreter after the win. "The Chinese team training has been very effective. That is why I have been able to sustain my performances for three days."

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PC buys ticket for WBC finals, watches from spectators gallery​

HYDERABAD: Home minister P Chidambaram stood in queue, purchased a ticket from the counter and watched the finals of the World Badminton championship from the spectator’s gallery on Sunday to send a symbolic message after England pulled out citing security reasons following alleged terror threat to the event. Chidambaram's action seen as an attempt to prove a point that there is no threat to the premier event flew into Hyderabad by a scheduled commercial flight and proceeded in a private car to Gachibowli stadium , a 15-minute drive, unannounced. The Minister, who was without any security cover, was on a "private' visit to the city, official sources said in New Delhi.

The Home Minister bought an Rs 1,000 ticket and proceeded to watch the finals of the Championships from the spectator’s gallery before he was spotted by the tournament organisers. Chidamabaram was asked to give away the prizes to men's champion Lin Dan from China and later watched the mixed doubles and women’s doubles finals from the VIP arena where national badminton coach P Gopichand was seated next to him. Cyberabad Police Commissioner S Prabhakara Reddy said the visit to the stadium was not "prearranged". The England team had pulled out from the citing security reasons after certain intelligence reports suggested that there could be a Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) threat to the tournament. Chidambaram, earlier downplaying the intelligence input, had said, "I am satisfied that the World Badminton Championship will take place in complete security. No one needs to have any apprehensions on this score." He had said the alert in Hyderabad was based on the information shared with the state police in a routine manner.

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China bag medals, but India optimistic

China bag medals, but India optimistic
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Security concerns, a swine-flu scare and the English team pulling out was definitely not the ideal start to the World Badminton Championship. After all, the event was to kickstart India's effort to find a place on the world map as a competent host as the country gears up to host a number of marquee events in the run up to the 2010 Games in New Delhi.
Soon after England's pull out Scotland's Susan Egelstaff made a valid point. "India is hosting the Commonwealth Games next year and it (English pull out) is not a very good advertisement."

The Badminton Association of India (BAI) and the Indian government were aware of the bad publicity and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had to clarify the security situation and the state government did everything to ensure the tournament's smooth conduct.

Security issues dominated the start of the tournament and the unannounced withdrawal of an Austrian men's doubles pair only compounded matters. Badminton World Federation Chief Operating Officer, Thomas Lund, however, praised BAI for the conduct of the event. "We had to deal with a lot of external events. It was a challenge and we have come through it fairly well," he added.

On the sports front, China once again proved their supremacy pocketing four gold medals. The Danish mixed doubles pair of Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Thomas Laybourn bagged their first gold medal since 2003. Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen added a bronze to Denmark's tally while Indonesia bagged three silvers. Korea bagged a silver and a bronze and France won its first world championship medal.

India's wait for another world championship title was extended by another year but the home side's shuttlers showed that they were getting closer to the best in the world. Saina Nehwal failed to make it to the semifinal but the grit she showed in playing the tournament 10 days after suffering from chicken pox was testimony to her fighting spirit. Men's singles players Chetan Anand and P Kashyap also impressed with Kashyap being the only player other than eventual champion Lin Dan to win a game against second seed Chen Jin. India also had their first mixed-doubles quarterfinalists but Jwala Gutta and V Diju were well below par against silver medallist Liliyana Natsir and Nova Widianto.

Overall the tournament did not really prove India's capability as hosts and it remains to be seen whether administrators learn from the experience here and make the Commonwealth Games a grand success.

China bag medals, but India optimistic- Hindustan Times

 

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Badminton england sorry for hyderabad withdrawal - Yahoo! India News

The English badminton federation, Badminton England (BE), has apologised to India for pulling its team out of the World Badminton Championships held in Hyderabad from August 10 to 16, following a perceived security threat. "I am aware our decision is likely to have increased scrutiny on the championships and as a consequence, placed additional pressure on the relevant authorities.

For that, I apologise," Adrian Christy, BE's chief executive, wrote to V.K. Verma, president of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) in a letter received on Monday. "It was never our intention to generate the significant media attention that followed our withdrawal," Christy's letter said.

The apology is being seen as a major moral victory for India.Verma said "the piece of good news" proved how baseless the worries over security that some teams had were".

With the Commonwealth Games just around the corner and a number of countries expressing concern about security, BE's decision may just make things easier for India.