She's back to CHN national badminton team as mixed doubles coach assistant to help Yang Ming & Jiang Guoliang. http://sports.sina.com.cn/others/badmin/2019-11-21/doc-iihnzahi2330651.shtml Meanwhile former All England champion Lu Kai has announced his retirement : http://sports.sina.com.cn/others/badmin/2019-11-21/doc-iihnzhfz0683371.shtml Partnered with Huang Yaqiong previously, this tall player Lu Kai enjoyed brief successful as world number two post Rio OG 2016 then massive setback occurs following Lu/Huang failed to save CHN team at the brink of defeat in Sudirman Cup 2017, succumbed to lower-ranked rival Choi SG/Chae YJ straight forwardly.
Happy retirement for Lu Kai, wish the best for his future endeavour. Not trying to undermine his achievement, but I always think it was mostly HYQ who elevated them as an elite pair back then. Of course now we can see that ZSW is a better partner for HYQ than Lu Kai ever was.
Lu Guangzu's typical mistakes lost him the match.The first is smashing errors. And secondly,he got caught at least 4 times by Kanta's favourite deception at the net. No doubt Kanta has a better game but LG should have a more relaxed attitude to his game. He is so tensed up that he forgot his home work on his opponent. He should look at Zhao Jun Peng who has a great temperament and good timing. Lin Dan has lost to Kanta before. Lets see whether he has improved.
https://bwfbadminton.com/news-single/2019/11/22/wang-wen-jiao-feels-lucky-about-national-honour/ WANG WENJIAO FEELS ‘LUCKY’ ABOUT NATIONAL HONOUR 22 NOVEMBER, 2019 TEXT BY DEV SUKUMAR Wang Wenjiao, China’s pioneering badminton head coach who was honoured by President Xi Jinping at the country’s 70th anniversary celebrations in September, said he felt “lucky” that his contributions were recognised. The award was given on 28 September 2019, and Wang was among 42 prominent citizens honoured at the gala. Significantly, he was the only awardee for sport. “I feel great and thankful because my country has remembered me. I thought I was forgotten. I wasn’t prepared for this. It feels like a big surprise,” said Wang, during the recently-concluded Fuzhou China Open. “There are many citizens who have contributed to the country, so for me to get this honour feels special. I feel very lucky that my contribution to badminton has been recognised.” Wang, who was born in Solo in Indonesia, was invited to his ancestral land in 1954 to develop China’s first national training programme in badminton. Along with his friend Chen Fushou, he set about popularising the sport and identifying prospects. Among his early batch of trainees were Tang Xianhu, Hou Jiachang and Fang Kaixiang, who achieved great success at Asian events and friendly exchange events in Europe – but were unable to compete internationally as China weren’t affiliated to the IBF. Once they entered international badminton in the early 1980s, China immediately made an impact. They won their first Thomas Cup in 1982 and the Uber Cup in 1984. From those spectacular early years, China has continued to remain one of badminton’s powerhouses through the years. Wang, who served as head coach until the early 1990s, was a Council member of BWF and was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. Wang recalled with fondness his association with the city of Fuzhou: “Fuzhou is where we started the development of Chinese badminton. Since then, it has progressed very fast. “When we came here in the 1950s, the houses were built of wood. It was different from what we see now. The provincial government has put a lot of emphasis on developing the sport. I see that they are now the main sponsors of the event, which never happened earlier.”
http://sports.sina.com.cn/others/badmin/2019-11-26/doc-iihnzahi3533752.shtml ;- 羽毛球后备人才的培养不仅要面对漫长的周期，更需要家庭的支持。 “现在很多小孩子的父母不希望自己的孩子太早走专业道路。”身为广西羽毛球队主帅的赵剑华对基层人才培养颇有感触，“他们希望路走得可以更宽阔一点，除了读书还可以打球。” 据赵剑华多年的观察，国内有很多水平不错的小选手。但由于此前注册运动员的审核规定，他们需要在年纪很小的时候就要在读书和职业化之间做出选择，大部分家庭倾向于前者。 羽毛球运动在中国拥有庞大的群体。据2014年国家体育总局的数据，中国羽毛球人口已经达到了2.5亿，而且人数在不断增加。与之相反的却是职业运动员数量的低迷，据《中国体育报》的报道，羽毛球目前的注册人口只有几千人。 The above, taken from the said article link, is an explanation of why CBA is facing a dearth of talents (my translation follows):- The nurturing of a reserve of talents not only requires a long period of time, even more so it needs family support. "Nowadays, many kids have parents who do not wish their children to take the road of specialization too early." As a team manager of Guangxi badminton team, Zhao Jianhua has his thoughts and feelings regarding the cultivation of talents at the grassroots level, " They (the parents) wish the road taken (by their children) offers a wider choice, that is, apart from studies, they can also play badminton." According to Zhao Jianhua's years of observation, domestically there are many young athletes of quite a good standard. But owing to previous registration of athletes' audit regulations, they are required at a very young age to make a choice between academic pursuits or professionalization, and the great majority of families prefer the former (that is, studies come first). Badminton in China has a huge community. According to data from the General Administration of Sports, the Chinese badminton population has reached 250 million in 2014; moreover, the number continues to increase. In contrast, the number of professional athletes has slumped, according to China Sports Daily news report, the registered population of badminton professionals is only a few thousand. [ The article went on to talk about what CBA is doing to address the issue, the reforms being carried out since February this year, for which I am not translating the relevant parts as I'd rather wait and see the results going forward. - Justin L]
Actually, some time ago I also posted another Chinese article where Xia Xuanze lamented something similar to Zhao Jianhua regarding the shrinking pool of talents for CBA to tap into for professional badminton players in China in recent years despite the sport's popularity with a huge community of casual, recreational and amateur players across the country, as just too few are willing to take it up as a profession. Another thing about the above article which I didn't translate but would like to mention is that the author claimed it takes approximately 10 years to groom a player from young to a stage when he can start to show results in international tournaments. So, assuming the kid starts at age 10, he would be about 20 before we can expect some decent achievements on the world stage. Well, that makes sense though not many are successful as, I believe, few have the talents, diligence, and perseverance to go all the way, the more so when they have to juggle between studies and sport during their school age.
3 MD in the semifinals of the Syed Modi International. No Japanese and Indonesian participation but still surprising that China is doing so well.
Syed Modi International Champs is Super 300 tournament, no surprising result since not many established pairs taking part, pratically only Choi/Seo and local favourites Rankireddy/Shetty as their primary stumbling block here.
Congratulations to ZSW/HY, JYF/CQC and CYF in the HSBC Tour Finals. Winning 3 out of the 5 Finals is not a bad performance. MS and MD are China's weak areas. With the new coaches for those two disciplines, hopefully something will change in 2020. The WD has certainly improved as they seem charged up in the final. Noticeably the Korean coach was at hand and probably helped them mentally and strategically. Who would have thought that CYF can lose the 1st set against the world champion and beat her in the next two sets. She has certainly improved her attack , stamina and body strength . Her stroke play and mental toughness has always been her strength and she didn't lose confidence when she lost vital points for TTY to catch up. I didn't see Li Mao during the tournament. Understandably the top players will stick to their present coaches for the season ending finals, but maybe we will see him in the new year. Li Mao should be preparing the junior MS and MD for 2020. Its about time China produced some exciting young players in the MS. I am looking forward to 2020 in the hope that this will happen. Congratulations to the winners in the Season Ending Finals. Happy new Year to everyone.
I know that Li Mao is officially appointed to head the CHN MS department. So I'm not too sure if he finds the time or is consulted by Luo Yigang, the CHN WS chief coach, to offer some input or pointers to some of the CHN WS players. I hope so. It's not surprising at all, no problem, for from what I've gathered, Luo Yigang as well as his contemporaries, Sun Jun, Dong Jiong, and Cheng Gang, were once Li Mao's proteges and they still hold him in high regard. By the way, Luo Yigang was once world ranked as high as 3rd after Sun Jun and Dong Jiong at a time when the latter two were taking turns to occupy the first two positions.
No, it's been canceled as CBA wants the team to better prepare for the Olympics qualification. That decision was made quite some time ago and I've reported on it here months ago.
Congratulations to Sun Feixiang for qualifying for the Perodua Malaysian Masters. He beat Brice Levedez and Lee Dong Kuen in straight sets. It was his first meeting with BL, ranked higher than him and his 3rd meeting against LDK, having lost in 2016 and 2017. SFX 's defence has improved a lot and noticeable that he managed to beat a fast player in BL, and a slower but consistent player in LDK. He will be tested in his next match tomorrow against Kenta Nishimoto
At the Malaysia Masters'20 in R2, Wang Zhiyi surprised me somewhat by beating the highly experienced and crafty Intanon Ratchanok albeit winning the decider by the narrowest of margin, 22-20 after holding two matchpoints. My surprise has more to do with the fact that most young, relatively inexperienced up-and-comers tend to struggle with deceptive players like Intanon, I recalled how Chen Xiaoxin was bamboozled by her in their first meeting. I daresay this match proves that WZY is a clever, thinking player, and she seemed more proactive now and seized the initiative to attack more often than before. That's a good sign as previously she has the propensity to rally a bit too much, playing lots of clears and drop shots, sometimes to her detriment as more experienced opponents read her game. Wang Zhiyi, keep it up. Way to go.
