It is not a phrase or adjective She truly bited her nails as a habit I don't think she was nervous. She was as if "Let me bite my nails before I continue and you better damn give me time for me to get rid of these annoying nails of mine"
she even tried to show the umpire her nail, "see, they really are broken.." but the umpire wasn't very interested.
The only fault on the umpire is that he didn't do it sooner . Now it leaves the opportunity for folks like you to say it changed the course of the match . It was already tied by that time and momentum had swung to Okuhara's side ... Okuhara could have complained a dozen times in that third set but that's not in her nature I suppose (I had reached the point of 'seriously still not ready?!? Time to complain!' well before the first yellow card. If you walk to the receiving spot you are ready to receive otherwise walk around if you need a breather ) As for the Lin Dan racket toss: like it was the first time it has ever been done? Nothing wrong with it and has been done dozens/ hundreds of times before and in the whole of badminton probably many thousands of times ...
not at all. yes, but it is not a fixed amount of time. it is at the umpires discretion to what constitutes 'continuous play'. i don't know where you are going with this accusation but you should know this: the umpire cannot hear the commentators. correct. if a player needs to buy time, they certainly know how to do it within the rules.
lin dan has ascended to a new level. he used to be, hands down, 'the best': the fastest, the fittest, the most powerful. at his current age, 33, he is realistically none of those now. however, he has managed to graduate to an even higher level: 'master of the game' simply put, he makes the top players beat themselves. if you need more of an explanation, you just don't get it.
Red carded, awarding 1 point to NO at 17-17 and deciding game of AE final, had a huge mental impact on WSX, no matter who that player was. It gave that player a mental shock. It swung the momentum of the match. Perhaps WSX is tired so she wasted court time or gathering her thoughts/strategy as how to counter NO. IMO, the referee may have the right rules to give out the red card but he should let the game play itself out, especially in the final game. I remember in almost all (I want to say ALL but...) NHL professional ice hockey final especially Game 7, the referee refrained from calling shots that are clearly against the rule and let the players continue play and dictate the outcome of the match that decides the winner. If the referee tried this at Montreal, that is sure a riot.
How can you compare a violent, raw, team-oriented, obnoxious sport vs. an individual oriented, elegant, fast-paced sport. In Professional Ice-hockey game, fighting is actually legal.
LD in 2004 OLY played run and gun style, 1 dimension player and got KO when he could not outgun Ronald. At 33, 12 years later, LD cannot play that speedy gang buster style, or he will get hurt and out of RIO which is his only target and why he is still in this game today. Last year, that was plenty of fans saying 'faked play', 'downhill' when LD was KO early. Last year was 18 months to RIO, if LD had to play all out to win those SS, he had to be in top form and shape to beat all the top players, basically he had to peak last year, then what's left when he gets to RIO or out of RIO if he gets injured. In CO where he narrowly lost to LCW (or could narrowly won that game too), that match told us where LD form was at that time which was on par with CL and LCW level. This AE he showed us he can play, think and alter his style to match any players, this is really dangerous. All the younger stars panted playing LD in this AE, I cannot see any sign that LD is out of shape, no panting, his fitness is right up there, and RIO still has 5 months to go for LD to improve on. He dived when he had to play JOJ or take it easy toying with HTW. If LD can get the #2 rank at RIO, that is ideal for him (WR1 is out as CL is too far ahead I think), LD would not have to face CL and if LCW falls on CL half, that would be perfect. And if both gets eliminated prior to the final, so much the better as happened in this AE. Of course, we are assuming all 3 players will get to RIO SF, as this AE showed us anything can happen. What if another Cordon shows up and CL bye bye. Another Indian player shows up, LCW balik to Malaysia. Or another Choi shows up, CL can kiss it bye bye....Hahaha!!!! Difficult not to bet on the money player.
True, team sport is unlike individual. The point is refereeing a final match and for the referee to score a point against a player on a crucial final match, tied at 17-17. That 1-point, I am not sure WSX saw it coming and who knows what effect that had on her. Maybe if this incident involves LD, he can shake it off and play on even better or LD will throw racket like a javelin as protest, or a TH will walk out of the court and say 'screw it', I don't need this. BTW, if it is fighting in the final match, most times, both players got ejected. Very seldom, the referee penalize 1 player at that final match and has an influence on the match outcome.
tough call, imho. if that were the norm, then players will start to take advantage of it and start to waste time during crucial stage of the game, esp if the rhythm has not been on their side. not to say the fan on the other side will start crying foul if a player not getting called for wasting time leading to their idol losing out. it really depends on where the line need to be drawn and obviously everyone draw their line differently and subjectively depending who benefits from it.
I am still waiting if someone can find out with CHN having only 2 players at RIO, say LD and CL, both will be split into 2 opposite half, regardless of ranking. I think it has to be split up because to have the 2 players in the same half, that means CHN cannot get gold-silver, or worse if say LD is out of top 4 and at WR5, he could end up playing CL at QF, then CHN will most get 1 medal. BTW, this apply to other countries too like JAP in WS or CHN in WS, or JAP/KOR in WD/MD.
I agree this is a tough call...too bad it happened at 17-all in the final match. Wish it occurred earlier on, that this call may not have as much of an impact then. NO played well, she reminded me of Gong Zhi Chao, vertically challenged but with incredible stamina running all over like an Energizer bunny. Now, the bull-eye is on her back. WS is sure wide open, unlike the past dominated by the CHN WS. We have great games to look to from MS, WS, MD, WD, XD...no clear favorites.
earlier on, someone mentioned that this might be one of the best WS games. it too reminded me of Gong Zhichao, deep down i thought they should've dig out some of the matches GZC played when she was at her prime. that's what a short runner type who has trained herself to be lethal at the right moment. I think Nozomi still have a lot to learn and I would be surprised if she didn't train herself modeled after Gong Zhichao.
Not sure how the WSX-NO looked on screen, but in the stadium it appeared thusly: Very early on the umpire made ut clear that he was not going to stand for any delays. Overall the right thing to do, early on. It was carried a bit far at times. And in the beginning the umpire was definitely more harsh with WSX than NO. Nozomi definitely got away with the shoe tying. And that won Wang sympathy from the crowd (as well as her great play). By the third game the umpire was warning both relatively equally. But WSX started wasting more time. At the time of the red card she took a long walk, paused for a bit, wiped brow, then stopped to fix her strings. It was definitely way beyond what she did to earn the yellow card. With each second that ticked by the crowd was making more and more noise of dissatisfaction. She could not have been unaware. It was unmistakable that the guillotine was about to fall. WSX simply took a tactic and let it go one heartbeat too long. Nevertheless watching her play is an amazing sight to behold. These two ladies really put on a show.
GZC played incredible court coverage. I remembered she described how she trained her back hand, climbing mountains fast-paced and so on. WX, GZC rely on stamina, speed, anticipation and rarely caught out of steps, both are great players and exciting to watch as fans, one more successful than the other in capturing majors. On the other hand, XXF IMO was one of the least physically fit WS players but blessed with her long limbs (watch her game, she took 2 steps to reach that birdie) was also one of the most successful in winning majors. Tall fellas sure has the advantage, that is why given the vast WS players selection, CHN has the privilege of picking the taller gals. WX, Gong, WSX are exemptions.
I suppose the logic behing the umpire's decision is that badminton is also a contest with a strong physical dimension, thus delaying is not a matter of being rude or making the public wait or else, it is going against the rule (continuous play).
It is disrespectful. I'm sure she don't mean any disrespect. Everyone knows that. Everyone knows it's because she's tired thus trying to recover a little bit. But you can't just walk around when everyone is ready, that's the very definition of wasting time. Referee was very patient I think, if anything he was quite lenient because it seems he had warned them a few times about it before, even brandished a yellow card. Again, what referees do in other matches is irrelevant. It's not about her being chinese. I thought the red card was fully a correct decision. It's very clear that she was....wasting time in order to recover. Which is totally understandable but also deserve the risk of a red card.
a computer just beat the best Go player in the world. a computer now decides questionable line calls. perhaps one day we will a computer decide umpire calls like these, then there is nothing to argue about. but i think that will be a rather sad day. like when a computer camera is planted at every highway and street corner in order to catch speeding.
One of the problem with umpires is that they differ one from another. WSX and NO were both delaying the game, but in fact not more then a lot of other matches with other players, LD being a famous case, MZ another one. It is like the service faults calls, what we can ask from the umpires is consistency.
