The San Francisco Chronicle (a major US newspaper) had a nice write-up yesterday on the US MD win: "Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach became the first Americans to have a shot at a world badminton title by winning a men's doubles semifinal Saturday night in the World Badminton Championships. The 13th-seeded team of Gunawan, from Fullerton, Calif., and Bach, of San Francisco, swept No. 4 Luluk Hadiyanto and Yulianto Alven of Indonesia, 15-9, 15-13. Second-seeded Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto of Indonesia, who won the world championship in 1997, will try to stop Gunawan and Bach in the finals Sunday." The rest can be seen here, http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/20/sports/s234251D53.DTL.
Congratulations Team USA!!! Maybe more US press will report the Badminton WC now that USA's MD team won the GOLD? We'll see...
The 11 o'clock news mentioned the USA victory. They talked about it for about 20 seconds and that was it. but hey, i was suprised they said anything at all. And its a start!
CNN - "U.S. stuns Indonesia for first badminton title" The CNN/SportsIllustrated site just reported the win on the SI front page as one of the top stories: Breaking through Gunawan, Bach win U.S.'s first world badminton title Posted: Monday August 22, 2005 2:21AM; Updated: Monday August 22, 2005 2:21AM ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach won the United States' first world title in badminton Sunday night at the World Badminton Championships. The pair, seeded 13th in men's doubles, rallied in the final game for a 15-11, 10-15, 15-11 victory over No. 2 Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto of Indonesia, who were seeking their first world title since 1997....more here, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/more/08/22/badminton.finals.ap/index.html
MSNBC - "U.S. pair makes history in ... badminton?" MSNBC also picked up the same AP story: U.S. pair makes history in ... badminton? Gunawan, Bach take country’s first ever title at championships Mark J. Terrill / AP United States players Tony Gunawan, left, and Howard Bach celebrate winning the men's doubles finals at the IBF World Badminton Championships on Sunday. Updated: 2:39 a.m. ET Aug. 22, 2005 ANAHEIM, Calif. - Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach won the United States’ first world title in badminton Sunday night at the World Badminton Championships. (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9037620/)
Here's the LA Times link: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-badminton22aug22,1,4424288.story?coll=la-headlines-sports
Badminton will be BIG in the US of A. The news made it to the Orange County Register: http://ocregister.com/ocr/2005/08/22/sections/sports/sports_columns/article_644220.php and USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/summer/2005-08-22-badminton-worlds_x.htm
More news from various US media Fox Sports: http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/4798094 Official site of the US Olympic Team: http://www.usolympicteam.com/11753_37917.htm The Beaufort Gazette (South Carolina, Wow!): http://www.beaufortgazette.com/24hour/sports/story/2652368p-11155308c.html San Francisco Chronicle: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/08/22/SPG0GEBAL71.DTL Pioneer Press (Minnesota): http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/sports/other_sports/12443729.htm Contra Costa Times (Northern California): http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/sports/12443729.htm Bradenton Herald (Florida): http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/sports/12443729.htm The Kansa City Star (Montana): http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/12443729.htm Fort Wayne News (Indianna): http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/sports/12443729.htm and from many more states big and small...
History should be printed on Front Page Newspapers If you don't see any news about this historical event in your local newspaper front page today (which unfortunately I don't believe there is any in the US), I encourage everyone to write their local newspaper sport editor and voice your opinion. I just did it to the Orange County Register. This will hopefully further open the badminton awareness accross the USA.
Did the US Badminton organizers send out press releases and interview invitations? seems like a good idea... I wonder if the US organizers sent out any press releases/interview invitations with Tony/Howard? Perhaps they can also do a segment on badminton - history, second most popular sport in the WORLD, etc. And that it's a very fast-paced and rigorous sport, to debunk it's backyard/barbeque/leisurely image perceived by the US public.
The Press Release is still not enough I received a reply from the writer of the Orange County article covering WC; however, the writer doesn't get to decide what goes on the front page, the Sports Editor does. If the Sports Editor receives enough requests or at least hear that there are people out there (i.e. their readers) who cares about badminton, the next time there is a badminton news, especially as big as this one, wouldn't go unnoticed. I again encourage everyone to write an e-mail to the local newspapre Sports Editor asking them to give more credit to Badminton. Thanks!
