Some of my most memorable events of WC 2006 in no particular order: 1. LCW complaining about LYB's verbal abuse from the sidelines 2. TH losing to CH in 3rd round. His defeat was covered by the BBC World Service on radio. Unbelievable! 3. CH raising his hands to the crowd during the last few points of his SF defeat to LD. What a graceful way to end his tournament run! 4. First ever all-english XD Final 5. First ENG player to play in two finals on the same day. 6. Some really dodgy line judges. I know there must be more. Please add!
fact that this must b the most subdued WC ever! not much interest expressed on this board from the SFs onwards.. my gues is when lcw n TH went out 80% of the members of dis board stopped paying attention
Agreed, this realy didn't even feel like a World Championships. I am pretty sure that even the IIHF (Hockey) World Championships garner more interest even though it is at the same time as the NHL playoffs.
Lee Hyun Il smashing his racket onto the floor after a 3rd line call against him in the dying moments of match against Bao. Chen Hong's camera angle view after his win against Taufik. German's Womens team progressing to get 2 bronze's. Bad Attendance Media Coverage?! The drift/wind coming from behind the umpire's side. Better statistics!!!!!!
The huge argument between Zheng Bo and Zhao Tingting can probably considered a memorable moment as well
The intensity of the NSS as seen on the coaches' faces, the players more vocal challenge on line calls, and some (unseen but heard) psychological tactics from one famous coach? It is becoming more like the English Premier League, with coaches hurling abuses at each other. Also the game is more interesting (more unpredictable)-an all English XD (where were the CHinese/) and an English MD finalist (where were the highly rated Indonesians, Danes, Malaysians, and Koreans?). I don't think all these would happen under the OSS, do you?
Under the OSS the best would have won; with some players attempting very risky but beautiful shots rather than " safer than risky" attitude. It was a quite boring event inside the court boundaries overall except for the unsportsmanlike attitude coming from the players and coaches and bad line calls making a real difference in the outcome of key matches because of the NSS. Yes, mental strain on the players and coaches may have been horrendous. Is that good or bad? I don't know.
LD covering his face with his shirt and exposing his tummy while he celebrated on the floor after defeating BCL.
Yes, LCW and TH are the superstars. Without them, badminton interest would be about half dead or in this BC ,80% gone.That's what I saw in SO2006. LD won't be able to pull in the crowds.
At the end of the day it really was no surprise who won each event. #1 or #2 seed won 4 of the 5 events, and the 5th was won by the 2005 #2 seed. At least last year at the Worlds with the OSS there were two winners who were not in the top two seeds!!!...
Because this forum has more Malaysian and Indonesian supporter fans.. I believe if you go to other Chinese forums, LD will be their superstar.
Yes I do. Why not? I know it is really an anti-climax when only 2 nations are represented across 5 final events, but as in all knock-out championships, the best survives. All the finalists deserve the credits, but for entertainment value, the finals lost its competitive edge. Perhaps the only way for fair representation is to only allow one entry per event per country, same like the World Cup in football world (although many would argue that the B team in Brazil is still better than many other teams that made it to the World Cup finals!) But we are talking about individual event here, not team event. So if a country, like China, who has about 5 MS players in the top 10 in the world, then I really not suprised about their dominance there. Back to the topic - the memorable moments for me: (1) CH performance against TH and PG - how one's confidence can carry one through (2) England performance - no one would have predicted their presence in the final day (3) the embarassing yet funny moment during the winning interview when the interviewer asked XXF how she and LD wanted to do for celebration that evening! XXF was stunned for about 10 sec before she could reply!
Downers: 1. The number of service faults were high, especially for the low serve. Normally, faults were committed during the surprise flick serve. 2. The number of high-profile last-minute withdrawals dealt the tournament a big blow. Lee Hyo Jung's injury resulted in the withdrawal of two high-ranking pairs. Chan Chong Ming had a genuine chance to trouble the top pairs. Schjoldager as well. 3. Mia's absence only magnified the strangle-hold of Zhang and Xie on the WS field. 4. The absence of Tony/Candra makes this WC somewhat not a WC. By definition, a World Championship should be represented by the best players/pairs, regardless of nationality. But, I understand it's hard to come up with a compromise. 5. Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia and Denmark did not have a single finalist. Outsiders must be wondering how come these countries were touted in the advertisements. But it's no one's fault really. 6. Horrible Mandarin-English translator. Xie was visibly confused when told about her 18 world titles. (In fact, the original question was about the 18 times she and Zhang met.) This was just the one incident that stood out. There were many more translation errors. I cringed. Highs: 1. Quite a number of high-quality matches right from the start, peaking around the quarter-finals. Nice to see so many different countries participating, and with passion, too. 2. Live matches right from the start (but not all broadcasted in some countries). 3. Creative commentating. I, for one, find that guy quite humurous, though he could do with some brushing up of badminton knowledge. 4. Statistics though occasionally not accurate (zero unforced errors for whole match?). I recommend "service errors" as another useful statistic. 5. The 21-point system. A lot will disagree with me, and I have no problem with that. I hope the system stays. No one should use it as an excuse for losing. If you can lose 21 rallies to another player in a game, you deserve to lose the game.
