Sport: Badminton/All-England: Chinese are just too good, says Christian S.S. DHALIWAL Send to a friend | Printable Page CHINESE players are expected to dominate the All-England Championships at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. At least, that is the opinion of Indonesia’s chief coach Christian Hadinata who said the strength of the Chinese players in the men’s events in the international circuit has been awesome. And he had no qualms installing the Chinese players as the favourites to win the most, if not all, All-England titles at stake. China have Lin Dan, Bao Chunlai, Chen Hong, Xia Xuanze and Chen Yu in the main draw of the men’s singles and Christian feels any of them is capable of winning the title. “Their form in the international circuit is the envy of other countries,” he said. “They have dominated the world badminton scene over the past year and I expect the trend to continue over the next few months or so. “The other countries have their work cut out as we try to stop the Chinese domination. “But it has been our fault the Chinese have gone from strength to strength.” Christian felt the decision by China to send their youngsters to play in as many international tournaments was something both Malaysia and Indonesia had failed to do and were now paying the price for the indifferent attitude. “There was not much difference between the players at junior level but the Chinese players started progressing really well after that,” he said. “While we sat back, the Chinese BA sent their players to gain experience and they are now way ahead of those who are in the same age group as them. “We need to learn from this mistake, though at times, we just could not afford to send the players to compete abroad due to financial constraints.” Indonesia have the likes of Sony Dwi Kuncoro and Taufik Hidayat in the main draw with youngster Simon Santoso likely to join them from the qualifying tournament.
