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CHINA BAGS FIRST BADMINTON GOLD IN SYDNEY IBF -
Their win was even more dramatic, as they were trailing 12-13 in the second
game. But suddenly in that crucial point, Tri and Minarti seemed unsure of what they should do on court. At 13-12 leading, the Indonesians played safely. “We started to be unsure of everything we did because they got
their confidence back. Their defence was great. They could hit back all of our attacks,” Tri said.
“We know that what made us lose in the two previous matches was speed. So we started work hard to get the speed,”
Zhang Jun commented. In the first game, they lost 1-15: “We couldn’t play our own game. So that in the second game we just tried to do our best,” Gao Ling added. The loss of the a bronze medallist in Atlanta for Liu
Yong and Ge Fei of China, didn’t make any different to their motivation. “We just kept our concentration on our match,” Zhang Jun said.
The British were both very good in front of the net. Archer had very sharp
smashes that worked very well. On the other hand, the Danes, knowing that they lack of sharp smashes just tried to play some fine net shots and placings which stunned the opposition. Michael Sogaard moved around the
court giving a sudden attack with some unpredictable drop shots.
In the second game, the Danes never gave up and managed to lead 7-3, 11-8 and 13-8. Once they’d got the service, Archer and Goode didn’t waste any
shots and tried to catch up until 11-13. Smashed in unbalanced position, Archer cost one point, 11-14. The second service from Olsen wasted into the net. With the service in hand, the British picked up one point before
Archer smashed into the net. The game went to the wire as Archer again smashed the shuttle to the net to finish the second game 15-11 for the Danes.
In the the third game, it was live or die. Goode, who playing
with the support of the family, husband Andy Goode and her three-year-old son Jack, admitted that they came into the game with a flat feeling after they lost dramatically to the Indonesians, Tri Kusharyanto and Minarti
Timur on the previous day. Simon Archer, who played with his operated knee felt that his condition was good. But after all, “This is a fantastic achievement for British badminton. Unfortunately yesterday we didn’t
strong enough mentally. We should’ve come to the final,” Archer said.
Ye Zhaoying must be very disappointed as she walked away to the other direction that she should go. She lost her chance to get the glory of
the Olympics as she couldn’t reach Gong Zichao’s drop shot in the left side corner. Gong won the battle by 11-8, 11-8. This was just the second time that she failed to get the gold medal. She swept out in the Atlanta
Olympics by Kim Ji-hyun four years ago in quarter finals.
In the women’s singles semi-final, Gong was very clever to pick the winning just at the right time. She had lost twice in the All England, and only twice
won over Ye along their 13 matches before. “I feel sorry for her. This is a normal feeling. She would have the same feeling if she beat me,” Gong said after the match. She admitted that the match was not an easy one for
her. After all, she said, “I played a little bit more patiently than her.”
The other semi-final featured Camilla Martin and Dai Yun, a repeat of the World Championships final last year. But there was no
comparison, as Dai Yun didn’t play at her best. The first game went very quick, 11-5 for Martin and the second game was just unbelievable when it ended 11-0!
“I couldn’t explain the feeling. I just can’t believe
it has happened,” Dai Yun said after the match. For Martin, “This it my best match against her. I saw Dai Yun kind of give up and couldn’t make any attacking shots. Before the match, she thought, “It’s not going to be
that easy. I should think that the Chinese player respect me because I’m the world champion.” |
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