My friend, your initial reaction is unnecessary and wrong. First, don't take the bait, Shuttle Flash meant it for youtube, the wild, wild west of no man's land where the slimiest, filthiest characters roam, not BC here where the best and brightest abound. Second, your thoughts should go like this: If I were the sportswriter, my main headline would be: Wow, Lin Dan, age 34, Silver at Glasgow World Championships ! Then in the article mentioned the nitty-gritty, like VA winning his maiden world title at age 23, Chen Long's unexpected failure to make the final or retain his title, LCW's shock R1 exit to Brice Leverdez who certainly deserves a mention. In other words, Lin Dan's achievement at the 'ripe old age of 34' puts everybody else in shame, esp those in the early or mid-twenties. Remember, when Lin Dan was VA's age, he already won a silver the year before at Anaheim, and at 23 won his first world title beating his compatriot and peer Bao Chunlai, also age 23 at Madrid 2006. The only time Lin Dan beat an older player for the world title was in 2013 , Guangdong,where LCW was a year older at 31 while Lin Dan only a year younger a 30. By the way, that is Lin Dan's 5th world crown. I can assure you, nobody in his right mind would even think of laughing or making fun of Lin Dan's amazing exploits at Glasgow, nor by extension at his legions of fans for supporting and standing by their great idol. On the contrary, looking at the podium picture, what stands out and captures our imagination should be Lin Dan who defied the odds and the ravages of age to grab a silver, not so much the young 23-year-old VA reaching his prime,the 28-year-old Chen Long, the 2x WC and Olympic champion, and the world ranked no.1, the 29-year-old Son Wan Ho. So, we Lin Dan fans should be exceedingly proud of Lin Dan and anybody who laughs at it ought to be ashamed of themselves. Besides, let's be big-hearted and have a sense of humour. Shuttle Flash has been making very good badminton videos to the benefit of badminton fans, we should appreciate him and forgive him for wanting to create some fun to draw attention to his youtube videos. If anything, I should think, the photo is conspicuous for the absence of LCW at the podium. As an aside, I also feel VA should've the good sense and courtesy to invite Lin Dan onto the winner's podium with him instead of just SWH, the bronze medallist whom he didn't get to beat. Cheers.
Exactly my thoughts, my friend! Very disrespectful of Viktor Axelsen to insult Chen Long and Lin Dan like that by not inviting them to the podium. I also feel he intentionally invited Son Wan Ho to add salt to the wound of Lin Dan, the talismanic Chinese. Lin Dan and Chen Long have won a combined 7 World Championships, 3 Olympic Golds, 8 All England Championships, 3 Asian Games Gold and countless Superseries titles. They are not just the colossal figures in Badminton Universe, THEY ARE A DYNASTY! This is how Great Champions, The Emperors of the Game respect their Great Rivals I Salute both of you, Chen Long and Lin Dan. Remarkable gesture!
After the dust fell back to the ground, I feel that most of all what was surprising in the WC was the very poor showing of CL in his encounter with VA. There is certainly an explanation. He was doing very fine until then. What happened all of a sudden? That he lost is something not strange, but with that score, it does not look like him.
Ah, I see, the graciousness of Lin Dan and Chen Long. Peter Gade has it too, remember, his Farewell Exhibition Match and hosting Lin Dan at his home.
When I was in the training camp before WC, I saw Denmarks top 6 there (including Holst and Bruun). But even though they have 6 players in top 50, they bring in others (like Ouseph, Evans, germans, russians, UK, etc.) You need quality training partners. But you also need some mixed styles, etc. Cheers, FB
I guess, after LCW's shock loss in R1, Chen Long thought he could cruise to the final, perhaps with manageable resistance from any semifinal opponent, thinking Lin Dan is probably his biggest obstacle in the final. And he practically coasted from R1 and was lulled into complacency until VA in the semifinals shook him up. He appeared unprepared for VA who has done his homework with a feasible gameplan and couldn't recover from it in time. It reminded me of how he lost to Kenichi Tago in the Thomas Cup and Son Wan Ho in the Incheon AG team event, as if he was unexpectedly bound hand and foot by his opponents and didn't know how to free himself or what hit him. I mean, with his remarkable physicality, if he has Lin Dan's mentality, he might be able to turn the match around from G2, instead his game inexplicably unraveled as he seemed lost and confused to the end. Nevertheless,write Chen Long off at your own peril, as he's known to come back much stronger from such horrible setbacks in the past, not once or twice but thrice, his first fiasco to the unheralded Kevin Cordon at the opening round of the 2011 WC. What with 2xWC and 1xOG to show for, all three in a row.
In Viktor's confused head-in-clouds state of mind maybe he thought Son Wan Ho was Lin Dan. Do you really think Lin Dan and/or Chen long felt insulted? The kid is new to this. You guys are nitpicking.
his early rounds were too easy. He was untested and wasn't ready for hurricane axelsen. I don't think it would've mattered, though. Axelsen was in the zone.
Please don't keep Posting that pic (topmost) LD looks like an astoundingly short punk, with that expression
Wash your mouth out, i find that deeply insulting, what has SWH achieved, let me tell you this, compare to LD,what VA has achieved is the first branch of 'low hanging fruit' on a tree, only time will tell if he even reaches higher branches which CL occupies now, i am not posting with a sour taste in my mouth,i don't begrudge VA at all, infact i predicted this was the likely result and congratulated VA straight after the outcome. P.S. i wasn't gonna contribute to this thread but had to say this,so over and out.
He didn't even ask Lin Dan to come, he looked at his right and gestured Son Wan Ho and Chen Long looked at him but Viktor didn't say anything to him either.
Have you guys ever looked at someone or something when you're not 100% thinking clearly and thought it was someone or something else? It would be normal for VA to wake up the next morning and still not recall 100% detail of what took place.
I think you might be reading a bit too much into that podium thing. Look at it. It's already cramped with one diminutive Japanese lady, one Indian woman standing slightly behind her and one half of a super lanky Chinese teenager (with the other half of said teenager dangling dangerously over the abyss). It'd certainly be difficult to fit three grown men onto that thing while keeping everyone's dignity, let alone four.
Give us a break!! The podium is too small to accommodate 4 person. Such a small issue. In fact, it's not even an issue. Must be the hangover.