Coach plays down gold sweep in London
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E-mail China Daily, March 3, 2012
China's badminton team boasts a collection of champions, but its head coach is guarded about its prospects at the London Olympic Games.
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China's badminton team boasts a collection of champions, but its head coach Li Yongbo is guarded about its prospects at the London Olympic Games. [File photo] |
Despite leading a star-studded cast which includes men's Olympic champion Lin Dan, world No 3 Chen Long and female world champion Wang Yihan and collected nearly every major title on the world stage last year, head coach Li Yongbo is cautious about the team's fifth Olympic journey under his leadership.
"We are confident, but that doesn't guarantee we will win all the gold medals, as fans expect," said the 49-year-old who steered the squad to all five gold medals at the World Championships last year.
Li said he expected the team could match the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games' three-gold feat, but stressed London would be a tougher challenge.
"This year we won't have the home-court advantage. Anything can happen at major events like the Olympics ... it is hard to predict, but we will do our best," Li said during the launch of the 2012 Red Bull amateur badminton tournament on Thursday.
Supported by the national badminton administrative center, the Red Bull tournament will swing off on April 7 in 129 different cities with about 50,000 players taking part.
The competition will be played in a best-of-three format, featuring men's singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
After four months of city and regional contests, the top two teams will slug it out in the London Olympic arena on Aug 6, the day after the badminton competition there concludes.
The Chinese team is expected to be courtside to support the grassroots heroes.
"I think the Aug 6 final is as important as the finals the previous day. After our competition, no matter what the result is, we will be glad to show up there and cheer for the amateurs," Li said.
Ambassador of the event, Lin "Super" Dan, is currently playing at the German Open and didn't attend the launch, but delivered his greetings by singing the tournament's theme song via video.
Meanwhile, Chen and Wang, who both worked with amateur players during last year's event, praised the participants' high levels of skill.
"Although they are not professional, they played with nice skill sets and a lot of passion. Last year I lost to a man even though I played seriously. Hopefully, their final could be as exciting as ours as we will share the same joy," said Wang, the women's current world No 1.
Emerging as the female side's new leader after former No 1 Xie Xingfang retired, Wang's mental toughness was questioned after she lost a crucial match, which led to an eventual team defeat at the Uber Cup final two years ago.
Wang said she has recovered from that loss and claimed last year's World Championships was her salvation.
"For me, my form is getting better and better after the worlds last year and I just need to stick to my normal, solid approach before London."
The only concern remaining for the strong Chinese squad is whether Chen Jin, the world No 5 men's singles player, can make the London main draw before the qualifying window closes on April 30.
Chen lags more than 900 points behind No 4, Dane Peter Gade, in the rankings and has to surpass him by winning some major tournaments.
With few qualifying events left, Chen will struggle to make it.
"The German Open doesn't offer enough points for him. It's really hard for him to get the final pass as there are only two valuable events left on the calendar for him," said Li.
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