Zhao Yunlei has gone into the sports administration for her province-- so probably retired from competition, even though she's still involved in sports...
The qualification round will indeed take place from July 1 to July 10. The full draw for team and individual competition is here: http://www.badminton-info.cn/Massage.aspx?MassageID=55 The draws for individual events are in a knock-out format with top 8 seeds automatically advanced to the round of 16. Notables in individual events: Men's Singles: (三、男子单打) #1: Lin Dan #33: Chen Long #59: Du PengYu #88: Xue Song #96: Tian HouWei #104: Wang ZhengMing #105: Ng Ka Long Angus #112: Qiao Bin #128: Shi YuQi Women's Singles: (四、女子单打) #1: Chen YuFei #33: Chen XiaoXin #49: Wang YiHan #64: Cheung Ngan Yi #80: Wang ShiXian #83: Yip Pui Yin #96: Sun Yu #112: Li XueRui #128: He BingJiao Men's Doubles: (五、男子双打) #1: Li JunHui / Liu YuChen #17: Wang SiJie / Zheng SiWei #25: Liu XiaoLong / He JiTing #33: Liu Cheng / Wang YiLyu #96: Zhang Nan / Fu HaiFeng #128: Hong Wei / Chai Biao Women's Doubles (六、女子双打) #1: Jia YiFan / Chen QingChen #17: Tang YuanTing / Huang MengMao #33: Huang DongPing / Li YinHui #51: Sun XiaoLi / Cheng Shu #72: Wang XiaoLi / Du Yue #76: Wang ShiXian / Gao FangJie #96: Bao YiXin / Tang JinHua #120: Zhong QianXin / Ou DongNi #128: Luo Yin / Luo Yu Mixed Doubles (七、混合双打) #1: Zheng SiWei / Chen QingChen #25: Liu YuChen / Yu XiaoHan #49: Xu Chen / Tang JinHua #81: Chai Biao / Jia YiFan #96: Zhang Nan / Li YinHui #120: Chen YueKun / Zhao YunLei #122: Lee Chun Hei Reginald / Chau Hoi Wah #128: Lu Kai / Huang YaQiong
Beijing Team wants him back. The Team now has Lin Dan, Qiao Bin, Zhang Nan and Liu YuChen. They feel that a third MS will help them to win the Team Competition.
Retired players returning are interesting. Especially the two WS Wangs. But WSX playing doubles and Jia Yifan mixed doubles?
Local teams are not as deep as the national team. They have to use whomever they have. Wang ZhengMing is also playing doubles. Regrettably, Ma Jin is not among the participants.
It will be interesting to see how the two Wangs go against the new generation of CXX and others. But I don't know how much they were serious in their training since retirement.
I think Tian Qing couldn't recover in time for the CNG, it probably spells the end of her career. Great to see so many ex and retired CHN national players making their, for some, final appearance before quitting badminton for good. Very interesting lineup and pairings too with some singles players doing duty as doubles players as well for lack of manpower. And with cross-team pairing allowed, it makes for very strong partnerships in doubles indeed. I'm sure this edition of the China National Games will be most competitive and strongest ever. Certainly worth watching, hopefully, there are enough coverage and livesteams provided, am eagerly looking forward to it. A point to note is that as the CNG'17 starts the week after the Glasgow WC, those participants involved in the WC will have to take a long journey back across several timezones and quickly settle in for the equally important event of the year for them. Needless to say, those who go the full distance in the WC may be a bit stretched coming to the CNG on top of overcoming their jetlag as quickly as possible, it makes me just wonder how they will try to balance the two big tournaments. I'd expect the senior, more experienced players to handle it better than their fellow juniors. Nobody can afford the luxury of unwinding immediately after the WC irrespective of how they acquitted themselves as they all have to throw themselves in the thick of battle again, a series of tough matches awaiting them back home.
I expect zhangyutv http://www.zhangyu.tv/channellist and another website I just discovered zhibotv http://www.zhibo.tv/ to provide the livestreams
Will be interesting too to see if Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei will face each other with different partners O_O
How is Ng Ka Long Angus playing Chinese National Games for Chinese People? Isn't there a wall between Hong Kong and China?
The team competition is about to start. The line ups for Saturday morning session are already available at the live score website (in Chinese): http://bdresult.badminton-info.cn/W...han&index=0&gameIndex=0&weapon=all&gender=M&F Players scheduled to play include: Chen Long, Wang ShiXian, , He BingJiao, Sun Yu, Zhao YunLei, Wang XiaoLi, etc.
At least the HKG players are playing for HKG... With Lin Dan playing for Team Beijing and Chen Long playing for Team Fujian (where LD is from), the National Games Badminton Competition is more like a professional club badminton league than Chinese Badminton Super League-- no wonder nobody wants to watch the CBSL...
She is not in the line up for the first two ties. She is probably not well enough yet. After her team locking up a spot, she may get to play.
