first time i've ever seen He B J play. Very impressed. Akane really struggled to get the shuttle down late on. Because of her short height she struggles to create angles when attacking.Fear that will be a recurring theme throughout her career against high quality players. Very enjoyable match.
He Bingjiao is the Youth Olympic Champion beating the twice WJC champion Akane Y and thus avenges her two previous defeat. What a sweet victory to achieve it on home soil.
In terms of skills, He Bingjiao is in no way inferior to Akane Y, maybe even a little bit better, but loses out on accuracy and fitness.
He Bingjiao proved me wrong, she reserved her best for last and produced a gripping, fighting,high-quality finale for a well-deserved, resounding victory over a strong, rising star who was widely fancied to take gold. I'm sure this morale-boosting win will go a long way to motivate her and propel her budding career forward towards greater heights in the future. In this extraordinary match worthy of any championship finals, we have everything we could hoped for, even at the senior level. Rarely do we get to see badminton of the highest order at a junior tournament. Without doubt it is the best match of the Nanjing Youth Olympics, overall. Talking about Akane, this is the first time I saw her stretched to the limit, several times forced to run all over the court, sometimes sprawling, a couple of times scrambling, and occasionally breathing heavier than normal. As for He BJ, it is amazing to see her making a diving retrieval and rolling over and over the floor at one point, 18-19, to send the shuttle just over the net beyond her opponent's reach, a stunt normally associated with MS. There were many exciting, brilliant and punishing rallies to keep us riveted. I shan't say more except to urge you to catch the replay if you missed it live or watch it again if you'd done so, it's certainly worth your while, I did. http://nanjing.ovp.olympic.tv/
Why did GC not commentate this one? She was commentating even the bronze medal matches. I would have loved her comments. Especially the usual, "And once again we have an all China Mens Singles Final", and her commentary on WS. She would have been devastated that Yamaguchi may not be the one she has been hoping for all along. (To break the Chinese Hegemony)
I've no idea, Devendra, and you're right to wonder how GC would have reacted to HBJ's unexpected victory over the highly fancied Akane Y. It was Richard Kaufman and another guy who were commentating and they were effusive in their praises of both WS players especially, with RK saying it's the best match he had ever witnessed at the junior level, a view I shared. I think I'm not being far-fetched to say both the MS and WS finals here are a harbinger of the future of world badminton which, like it or not, points towards CHN's continuing hegemony, perhaps even comparable to CHN's table tennis one day. Iirc, you mentioned Fan Zhengdong, the now 17-yr-old CHN table tennis fast-rising superstar who has presently reached WR#3 having won several world tour titles; the scariest part is he is still improving. He BJ, also 17 yrs old, is at the moment not as impressive as her counterpart FZD but with her remarkable success today beating Akane Y for the YOG gold, she may well be the FZD of WS badminton soon.
Possibly, but she commented in the morning! Seems a little strange, she could have easily got a flight 6 hours later. Also I just watched the match again, HBJ is superb!! This is one of the best matches I have ever seen! Her determination and spirit! She's got an iron heart man. These youngsters seem to be doing really great. Also somehow I saw a different style of play in both the players, different from the pro-badminton that we are used to. (I can't point specifics, I just felt it) Can someone comment?
To me, He Bingjiao is a very exciting and entertaining player to watch with her beautiful,fluid attacking style of play despite her stocky build. Also she possesses fine tactical awareness, deft touches at the net, amazing defensive ability and a dose of deceptiveness as well as some degree of creativity. I believe she will go far, how far, let the future tell.
Yes, but I don't think China will ever be as dominant as in Table Tennis. China has won every gold medal available to it in women singles, doubles and team events. To date it has lost only 3 gold medals. Chinese women team has been the world champion for 18 years before losing to Singapore in 2010, which is basically a China-B team. Why? Because each and every player in that team immigrated from China to play for Singapore within 4 years when it was aptly clear that they are not getting into the national squad. They just had their revenge. Also, China has done podium sweeps (1,2,3) in both men and women and won the team events in 2008. Seeing this, ITTF restricted entry to 2 players. Nevertheless in 2012 women and men won both gold and silver. There are 7 chinese men in top 10, and 7 chinese nationals in women top 10, the remaining 2 are from singapore, the ones who immigrated. The remaining one is a Japanese, who trains in China and speaks fluent Mandarin. The dominance is such that literally even China worries about it. People have stopped watching the sport, sponsors and spectators reducing, and every one wants someone to challenge the Chinese Team. ( Though they don't take kindly to one of their own immigrating and challenging them.) The ITTF president literally begs China to lose. He publicly said that China should open it's training ground and lose a little, train others and create challengers coz it will be for their own good. That's the level for an event that is a truly global sport. The hegemony is killing the sport. Maybe GC worries about the same thing. But sometimes I just can't tolerate the desire of the commentator for the ROW to win. Her unconscious China bashing and giving their players their due. But I must say one thing is for sure, that Chinese players are getting interesting to watch. In table tennis the older players of China generally used to play 6-7 years and then retire for the juniors. They never interacted or showed much emotion. These days Chinese players are much more extrovert. Zhang Jike the table tennis player, is the Lin Dan of Table tennis, for instance. Even in badminton they seem to be getting more extrovert. ( just my observation, could be wrong)
Do you think her and Yamaguchi's short stature will come to haunt them some day? (Both are 17 and unlikely to grow more.)
Maybe for Yamaguchi. But HBJ is like 5'6 i think. WSX and Wang Xin are about that size, so its still do-able.
Yup, two games with deuce plus close margin in deciding game, the match of final day which spent 76 minutes! It's like dream comes true for He Bingjiao to defeat the more experience and hot favourite Akane Yamaguchi. These two boys certainly will be CHN MS future hope, let's see how their progress next in senior stage. Congratulations to all medalists Men's Singles Gold : Shi Yuqi (CHN) Silver : Lin Guipu (CHN) Bronze : Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (INA) Women's Singles Gold : He Bingjiao (CHN) Silver : Akane Yamaguchi (JPN) Bronze : Busanan Ongbumrungpan (THA) Mixed Doubles Gold : Cheam June Wei/Ng Tsz Yau (MAS/HKG) Silver : Kanta Tsuneyama/Lee Chia Hsin (JPN/TPE) Bronze : Sachin Premashan Dias Angodavidanalage/He Bingjiao (SRI/CHN)
