That's Zhang Jun. Played mixed doubles with Gao Ling in 2000-2006ish. They won two back to back Olympic Golds and also have a WC.
I didn't watch the first game. Only second one, way too nervous performance from INA pair, especially Tontowi Ahmad. I wonder what's going on, I mean, this is indeed his first AG finale but not his first ever final, lol. Meanwhile Zhao Yunlei is superb tonight. ----- I see LYB is very concern about this match, he even question service judge even after the point was over and they continued to play, lol.
When tantowi gets nervous it is all over. After a good start, he got more and more shaky... Congrats to Zhang Zhao who are the best mx combo this period.
I must say the chinese pair deserved to win, too many things that our pair can't do. No smashes, no netkills, can;t defend, so many half-half replies. we didn't attack and didn't defend. I don't think natsir defence was superb, just lifting straight for another smash or half replies prone to netkills is suicidal. I think Ahmad should choose the place to learn. He didn't show his smashes or hard netkills like usual, his replies were also drives and pushes. He seems learning and thinking ahead of the game. But this is the final, he should do what he knows best, not trying something different.
Sigh...it was not meant to be for INA to win 3 golds in this year's Asian Games. However, I believe many INA fans are still very satisfied with the performances of our shuttlers, who deliver the targeted 2 gold medals, more than the usual 1 for the past 2 Asian Games. The performance of Nitya Krishinda Maheswari/Greysia Polii deserves many praise as they really overperformed and nobody expected Gold from them in the first place. Hendra Setiawan/Mohd Ahsan also delivered gold, despite the inferior record against the home pair. As for Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir, they were fantastic against Xu/Ma yesterday but it was an anti-climax today, unfortunately. Silver is still better than bronze though as they could always lose against Xu/Ma yesterday, given their 3rd seeding. In addition, Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto delivered a solid performance vs the eventual winner, losing only in two tight-sets and much will be expected from them in the upcoming tourneys. Tommy Sugiarto and Rian Agung Saputra/Angga Pratama disappointed. Tommy was expected to reach SF with an easy draw, only to lose against Wei Nan in R16. Rian/Angga also once again failed to overcome Lee/Yoo in the QF and went down with a whimper. As for the other players like Suci Rizki Andini/Tiara Rosalia Nuraidah, Ihsan Maulana Mustofa, Bellaetrix Manuputty and Lindaweni Fanetri, they went down early and quite expectedly too.
I must correct you, [MENTION=10680]badMania[/MENTION], noone expectected Greysia and Nitya to get any medal in the first place. The burden was on our MD and XD. That's why the XD seems so nervous and can't deliver their usual performance. I think all should get some mental training on how to stay focused and not fazed by anything, plus up their defensive play. I think Indonesia players rely too much on their attacking power and are clueless if they are put into a defending position, plus they seem to be quite easily satisfied and give opponents fee points in easy situations.
So CHN come on top with 3 Gold Medals (MS, WS, XD), they also have 1 Gold from Women's Team. INA has two Gold Medals (WD, MD). KOR come third with one Gold from their Men's Team. Congrats!! As badMania stated above, one that I dissatisfied is Tommy Sugiarto. He has good draw but couldn't make it. Tsk. For WS I think Bella did great by beating Sindhu and lost to Li.
The better pairs won the game today. Congratz to ZN/ZYL... They deserve the gold medal! TA/LN played nervously today, and they couldn't overcame the pressure from the opponents' attack.
I believe today's performance was just one of those days. Tontowi has improved leaps and bounds since the debacle at the Olympics 2012. In fact, the 2 Finals against Zhang/Zhao in the All-England 2013 & 2014; the 2 3-sets victories against Xu/Ma & Zhang/Zhao in WC 2013, the victory against Fischer-Nielsen/Pedersen in the China Open SSP 2013 were the proofs that they can also beat the other top 4 pairs in high-pressure matches and important tourneys.
Both of them performed top-notch badminton in 82 mins battle, two thumbs up! Yup, another major title for Lin Dan, two OG golds, two AG golds, five times WC, five times AE, it's really hard to break his WOW record! First game, Towi/Liliyana lead 13-8 then slowly but sure ZZ closed the gap and even took momentum, broke INA XD rhythm and sealed game 1. Game 2, the under pressured Towi/Liliyana was out of focus and created some errors regularly, ZZ turned their silver medal four years ago to gold this time. So, congratulations to all medalists : Men's team Gold - KOR Silver - CHN Bronze - TPE & MAS Women's team Gold - CHN Silver - KOR Bronze - JPN & IND Men's Singles Gold - Lin Dan (CHN) Silver - Chen Long (CHN) Bronze - Lee Chong Wei (MAS) & Wei Nan (HKG) Women's Singles Gold - Wang Yihan (CHN) Silver - Li Xuerui (CHN) Bronze - Bae Yeon Ju (KOR) & Tai Tzu Ying (TPE) Men's Doubles Gold - Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan (INA) Silver - Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong (KOR) Bronze - Kim Gi Jung/Kim Sa Rang (KOR) & Goh Wei Shem/Tan Wee Kiong (MAS) Women's Doubles Gold - Nitya Krishinda Maheswari/Greysia Polii (INA) Silver - Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi (JPN) Bronze - Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei (CHN) & Vivian Hoo Kah Mun/Woon Khe Wei (MAS) Mixed Doubles Gold - Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei (CHN) Silver - Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir (INA) Bronze - Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto (INA) & Xu Chen/Ma Jin (CHN)
Thanks CLELY for starting good threads as usual and providing the summary results as a matter of record here, at BC. How do I miss the 'thank you' button to say what a great post it's
and the final medals table; [TABLE="width: 500"] [TR] [TD][TABLE="class: grid, width: 320"] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD]GOLD[/TD] [TD]SILVER[/TD] [TD]BRONZE[/TD] [TD]Total[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]China[/TD] [TD="align: right"]4[/TD] [TD="align: right"]3[/TD] [TD="align: right"]2[/TD] [TD="align: right"]9[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Indonesia[/TD] [TD="align: right"]2[/TD] [TD="align: right"]1[/TD] [TD="align: right"]1[/TD] [TD="align: right"]4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Korea[/TD] [TD="align: right"]1[/TD] [TD="align: right"]2[/TD] [TD="align: right"]2[/TD] [TD="align: right"]5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Japan[/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD="align: right"]1[/TD] [TD="align: right"]1[/TD] [TD="align: right"]2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Malaysia[/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD="align: right"]4[/TD] [TD="align: right"]4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Taipei[/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD="align: right"]2[/TD] [TD="align: right"]2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="colspan: 2"]Hong Kong[/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD="align: right"]1[/TD] [TD="align: right"]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]India[/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD="align: right"]1[/TD] [TD="align: right"]1[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
It's very difficult for TA/LN to beat the two top CHN XD in succession I just think that it's very tough for TA/LN to defeat BOTH the top two XD pairs of CHN successively within one tournament such as in this AG, to beat any of the two pairs in SF then repeat the success immediately against the other in the final. The Chinese coach is a key factor that makes the successive successes very hard to gain.
Just now logged in and found the results. LINDAN once again proved me wrong. I wanted him to lose in the finals to chen long. But ....... hmmmmmm. He is really a great player. Hats off to him.. Kudos to chinese XD for getting gold. Overall, many calculations of mine gone wrong in these asian games. When I was expecting sindhu to meet Li, she unexpectedly lost to bella even before but when I didn't expect indian women team to win bronze, they did it by beating thailand team.
Great games! 4 years ago, China won 5 golds, Indonesia and Korea 1 respectively. 4 years later, China still got 4, Korea still 1, and Indonesia managed to grab 2! Congratulations to Indonesia! Especially the Women's double ! Once again, Lee CW collapsed big time. Same applies to Lee YD. Both Lees are regarded the most talented in their respective categories, unfortunately neither of them won anything big. Lee CW's problem used to be Lin Dan. He could win easily when LD's absent. Now comes another headache: CL, plus LD still there. it's LCW head 2 head disadvantage to both LD and CL now. Lee YD's another story. He failed to win any thing major when CY/FHF dominated. Now CY/FHF are old, even Koreans dominated the top 3 in WC, and Lee YD can choose, test, abandon, and re-choose any best partners in Korea, but he still lost to his abandoned teammates at WC, and also lost to Ahsan/Setiawan even though held 5-1 head 2 head record. China tried hard to take the men's team pride back, but they failed once again. That's the 3rd jinx in this AG beside Lee CW and Lee YD.
