"There's definitely not a lot of friendship between the Europeans and the Asians. We know that we're basically competing against the Asians so there's a bit more friendship with the European players." said by one of the british MD players.well, theres not a lot of friendship between the asian players too. maybe except some of the malaysian players.
it can be a matter of perspective. depends who this British MD player. perhaps there is little friendship between the Asians and HIM.
That is silly, I hope this competitveness does not breed into hatred.. "After the game, the King and the pawn return to the same box"
Did this British MD player also happen to play XD as well??? But there must definitely be some intenese level of competition between the Europeans and the Asians in this sport. For example, I'm sure when Denmark was in the Thomas Cup finals, all the European nations were rooting for Denmark as it represented European badminton while "most" of the Asian countries were perhaps cheering on China's side or neutral. But there is also a lot of friendship between European players and Asian players -- just look at Camilla Martin and the Chinese women's singles players. They always respect each other and half often had a laugh or two together. This one player could have experienced some antagonistic situations when facing the Asians and thus expressed his opionions so.
I think you got it spot on! And I agree with you too- there is a lot of respect and friendship between the Asian and European players. Just look at the Danish esp singles players warm embarce and congratulatory gestures towards their Asian conquerors in this Olympics.
that british player is robertson who lost to G/Z during the final. also some british reports think that zhang jun didnt show any sportsmanship. did the british pair have an argument with him or something??
i guess since 3 of us instantly know who this player is without anyone naming him already says much about the truth (or lack thereof) of what he has spoken. coming from JR our champion, the pros has a lot of respect for each other regardless of origin. a bad orange or two may appear but that is an exception instead of the rule. i think this is a good time to rest the discussion to prevent it from going out of hand. hatred is not something that i want to see spreading in the professional circuit nor in the forum. i apologize as i think my poorly spoken words initially may not have been appropriate.
sports is one of those things that bring people together...I do not believe there is any hatred between player...sports has a common language that transcends language, race and color...sports breeds respect and relationships formed by the passion of a sport...the competitive nature of sports may bring on hurt feeling, but under it all is respect...only when the integrity of good sportsmanship is violated, that the worst in humans appears...competition actually mean to help each other improve through each other trying to become better. So in that belief we should appreciate an opponent doing there best to beat you as in the end it will make you a better player...and let admit we are all satisfied win or lose if we are playing a close game with both side playing the best they can, trying to kill each other, but are having a good time because it is pushing you to your limit.
I think this statement hits the mark. Just Nathans way of trying to get over losing in a questionable way to gamesmanship? Possibly, but he does live and train in Denmark not the UK.
thing is, this kind of niggling behavious occurs in most sports....so its nothing new to complain about.
I remember last year during the Malaysia Open 2003, the Danish players played a volleyball match with the Chinese players at the hotel...
I only remember that I saw Chen Hong and Bao(if i'm not mistaken)... Then i saw some of the Chinese players playing water polo...
I saw NR interviewed on BBC, the female interviewer put it to him that she thought ZJ was using 'gamesmanship' to slow the momentum when the Brits were on a winning roll; NR replied that he had no complaints as he probably would have done the same in that situation and he said all credit to ZJ/GL for using it to their advantage. HTK & KDM got told off several times by the umpire for allegedly stalling 'gamesmanship'. I thought it was funny when HTK asked for the court to be mopped for sweat and the suspicious umpire asked the service judge to look to check if that was true.
I think it was more along the lines of the umpire not being able to see sweat on the court from where he was sitting and it's easier for the service judge to check since he is courtside and not up high in the chair like the umpire
And with that NR instantly goes up in the respect levels. To be fair, not everybody in the world can get on with all others around them. We all have our likes and dislikes. I don;t see why badminton is any different.
