Ic ic , never thought of that.. i was guessing that section is for those who are prone to mosquito bite.. so they put up mosquito net. Ahhaha... Most likely China will have a clean sweep...
Some good matches today and it was a good show of how the different the styles and proficiency of technique make in this game.The Chinese displayed overwhelming superiority in fitness and technique.The Koreans were also quite impressive with short efficient strokes and a patience for waiting for the right opportunity to come.The last match of the day in the Mens Doubles between Korea and Taipei was a bit of a nail biter as a 2 to 2 tie decider match . The Koreans after winning the first game started to mentally fall apart in the second and suddenly after an 8 to 2 lead were down 13 to 9 and it looked like a rubber game was in the cards.Suddenly the Koreans clawed back to get to 14 to 13 and looked to win it.All credit to Taipei as they won a long hard smashing rally where the Koreans looked to end it and won serve to tie it up at 14 all.Korea dug in deep and finally pulled away with Taipei making errors in the end to give way to the win.Very entertaining match as the crowd seemed to lift the Taipei pair to play with lots of emotion.The match with Chen Jin of China was a display of the difference in speed and worldclass experience makes.All credit to the Indonesian who put up a good fight but Chen Jin showed why he is with the national squad.Chen seemed to be everywhere and just when it seemed that the Indonesian had hit a winning shot he would blaze in with speed and hit a seemingly routine winning return.The hardest part part for the Indonesian must have been that it seemed like Chen had just been barely pushed and the way he carried himself between rallies showed it.The psychology of it seemed evident.I was amazed at the difference in the sound of the strokes as the players from the dominant countries seemed to have that crisp effortless snap to them and how the sound changed when the lower standard countries battled.Makes one realize just how far one would have to go play with the big boys or some of these ladies.I look forward to seeing the individual event championships begin as we will see even more of the hidden talent from those not lucky enough to play the team event.I apologize for only naming Chen Jin but with no program and with only team shirts visible I can't say with certainty who the other players were.No offence intended toward anybody anywhere.Just happy to have seen it.
I think they are using Extree portable stringing machines. I used to have this machine. It is easy to assemble and then take it apart. It does a pretty good job considering its low mass. Yes, it can string 30lb+ tension with no problem because of the 4 v-shaped side supports.
I think Taiwan suprised everybody with their surprisingly good results. Taking the 2nd seeds to a full 5 sets is certainly an exceptional feat for them! They certainly have bronze in their sights!! But the final affair tomorrow is going to be the most interesting one! Let's see if Korea can at least stop the Chinese from completely sweeping all their matches in this team tourney, with 0 losses. And, please folks who attended the recent matches: Post some more photos!!!!!
in the Asian Junior championship, the only match that China drop was the MD against Korea. too bad that the MD game between Korea and Taiwan wasn't played today as the match ended 3-1, there isn't a way to weigh their strengths.
Thanks for the story, BigHook. I wish I was there to watch Saturday's semi-final games, but I had to work today. When I was home at 7:30pm, I wanted to know who won (esp. China vs Indonesia), but I knew that the games hadn't finished yet. Tomorrow, I may go to watch the final. Yes, you are right. A live game can tell you more things than a recorded video. One of the reasons why there were not many photographs is because most of the audience didn't take pictures at the event. An elderly person who sat beside me also expressed that he didn't want to bring a camera here. But, there were camcorders setup at the top of the stand. I guess it is better than bringing a camera. A competitor from (China, Singapore, Taipei?) was checking her camcorder at the top of the stand (w/ tri-stand). She had red-pants. I wonder which country she came from. 604badder took a picture showing the indonesian team. The girl at the bottom right hand corner is "Polli," who helped the indonesian team to defeat Denmark. Wait a minute, is that China vs Indonesia picture (on third court)? Yeah, it looks like it. (the one showing China: 2, INA: 0).
The korea and taipei MD was definitely the highlite of the day as it was the last match and the whole stadium was just watching that match..those guys had incridible reflexes esp the koreans; blocking almost every smash but i never knew what the score was during the entire game.
Just got word from a friend. China won the team event 3-0 vs Korea. Total Chinese dominance in the team competition this tournament. They didn't lose a single match. I think the order of disciplines was XD, WS, and MS. No MD or WD. Does anyone know who, and how they choose the order? My friend said China simply over powered Korea. He also mentioned that the Korean WS player was making a lot of unforced errors today, and he felt if she was "on" that she could have won. Also, the Korean MS player got all of his opponents shots, but he was too defensive, while the Chinese MS is totally aggressive. And we all know who usually comes out on top in that kind of scenario.
Here are some of my observations and thoughts of the tournament so far... Consistency, or rather inconsistency. It seems that at the junior stage, consistency alone can get you quite far. I personally think the number of unforced errors is very high. Many of the kids out there are very talented. Definite flashes of brilliance in every match from many of them, but then it's followed by a string of unforced errors. For the very consistent teams of China and Korea, a lot of the time they just simply had to get the shuttle over and wait for an unforced error. I'm betting this is due to the difference in training programs and professionalism of the athletes. I know for sure the Chinese and Korean players are paid professionals, and pretty much lead the life of full-blown professionals. I'm not sure about the other countries, but my guess is they don't. I thought a perfect example of this was team MS Malaysia vs China. The Chinese MS had never been made to run so much than during this match. He almost always had to lift at the net, and had to run every corner like mad. The Malaysian MS player was totally brilliant at times, but then would make the simpliest unforced errors over and over. It eventually cost him the match, regardless of how close the score was. The same went with the Malaysian MD vs China. China and Korea rarely make unforced errors. Also, my friends all noticed that both China and Korea looked very professional when they practised. They had their routines down to a science and were very disciplined in how they carried everything out. They noted that the other teams seemed to fool around a lot. ...more later!
Malaysia beat Denmark 3-1 but... My question is, does Malaysia not take the team event seriously? Why isn't Azhanif Azhar playing mens singles? Resting top mens doubles player and putting a singles player in his place? Granted they won the tie eventually but it's just strange that they aren't putting their strongest line up for important ties
Life time experience OMG....i just spent the entire day watchin the team finals today and it's somethin i'll never forget!!!....it was my first live international badminton competion and it was simply awesome!!!!!.....the atmosphere was great and just unbelievable....im sooo happy coz i got china's singles players and lee dong soo's autograph and i even shook hands with the men single player (chen jing)...we had a small chat and he was really shy..CHINA WAS AMAZING ESPECIALLY CHEN JING.....unbelievable...i cant believe i still have to go to school after tonite..its gonna be sooo DULL....but i cant wait to go back to the arena on friday and saturday to watch the individual's final..and this time i'll be sure to bring a camera!!!!!!
yea....we spoke a little mandarin and english.....we just congratulated him on how well he played and asked him where he is from in china....it was a really short conversation coz his bus had to leave
The finals lady singles between Korea and China could probably be a closer match. From what I saw, the Chinese (did not remember her name) lady player is stronger physically and technically. In the first game, the Chinese player led 9-3, if not mistaken when she decided to change her game. Instead of pressuring her opponent, for some reason she started to ease a bit. The Korean player (last name is Jang) plays really well when she is not kept under pressure. She moved the Chinese player around with good placements and was able to catch up 9-9. Unfortunatelly she could not keep the tempo and lost the deuce. In the second game, the Chinese player did not make the same mistake. She attacked with her flat clears and smashes keeping the Korean lady under pressure. Don't think she was strong enough to return these shots. On the other hand when the Korean player tried the same - have to say the Korean girl attacking clears were better placed, but the Chinese player was able to return them. The Chinese player won the second game 11-3 (?). Overall it was a good match. I don't know if the Korean player could have won today even if she did not commit some unforced errors. But I do believe the Korean lady have a lot of potential. She is intelligent, has very good technique, fast but don't think her legs were strong enough. She is still young and not fully matured, we should still see a lot of her.
A total white-wash. The CHN lady player totally dominated, reading the game extremely well, and you could see her moving forward when the KOR man-player (?) stretched out for a shot, and totally killing EVERY drop attempt. It's either lift or die. The CHN man-player was powerfully explosive, and covered the court very well. Kudos the the KOR male-player with excellent defense and reaction. The KOR female-player was too weak physically to match CHNs, and made quite a few unforced errors, which just snowballed at the end of the 2nd game. Lost three point hitting just below the tape, hit-racket frame etc. Quite exciting to watch CHN in action though. They looked physically fit, moved well, made very few errors. They played like seasoned adults, while the KOR team really played like youths. The difference is quite marked. -dave Here's a preview of some shots I took:
I did find the Canadian players lifted their shuttlecocks quite low compared to China, Indonesian, and Korea (about 2/3 height). May be our Canadian players developed the habit from playing in our run-down, bad-lighting, low ceiling, community centres . Here is a little patchup for last Friday's team game. During the first game when Hong Kong players played against Korea's, they weren't played like a team, more like each of them tried to get to the shuttlecock. At one point, their racquet collided and the other Hong Kong player's racquet was damaged to a point that the racquet face was twisted. There was another issue that they didn't do well. When the Koreans were leaning forward like they were going to attack all the time, the Hong Kong players were timid of serving it to the Korean players' body. So, when they lifted it high, the Koreans killed it in one or two smashes. The Koreans were very well coordinated. On the second set, the HK players started to serve toward the Korean players then we started to see the Koreans were forced by the returns and had to move around. The Koreans won by good discipline, good smashes, and good team play. HK players did play like a team, lost their timidity, and played better at the second game. Indonesia vs Denmark game was very interesting. The indonesian girls demonstrated that with skills and strategy, shorter people can still win over taller people. Initially, Denmark's smashes were effective against Indonesia. But, at the third game of the girl double, Indonesia simply deflected the shots to the opposite corner near the net. They didn't always lift it high for the Denmark players. This certainly took the Denmark players by surprise. Both teams' stamina were very impressive. They were still running around at the third game and did many good shots. :crying: I only had one day from last week to watch the event so I totallly missed the semi and final games. Same thing for this week too, only for Thursady's quarter final. Anyone knows when is Thursday's game started? Is it 4pm?
Interesting... in those mixed doubles photos of the final, the chinese girl doesn't look like the girl I saw on Friday and Saturday. I could have sworn the girl I saw on those days had very short hair and was quite short in height as well.
