Of the 10 semi-finals held yesterday at the National Indoor Arena in singles and doubles competition, the People’s Republic was represented in nine, testament to the team’s 90 days’ confinement to training camp in Jingjiang while the Sars outbreak subsided.
Quite what 90 days holed up in the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes would do to their English counterparts is anyone’s guess. Social differences explain in part why China has been so successful here while England’s last remaining representatives, Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms in the mixed doubles, fell to China’s Chen Quiqui and Zhao Tingting in Friday’s quarter-finals. “They stayed for 90 days in training in their camp,” said Robertson. “That would be hard to imagine for us. They and the Koreans have been used to such a high level of commitment to the sport for so long, it’s only now that we are catching up,” ”
The world-class facilities at Milton Keynes are considered among the best in the world and Finn Traerup-Hansen, the Badminton Association of England’s performance director, believes that with the right support structure a world champion might soon emerge from its doors. Robertson and Emms have reason to feel they can make a breakthrough in next year’s Olympics. Both were hampered here by having only recently recovered from injuries.
But they were ranked first in the world at the turn of the year and Olympic year is when they hope to make their mark. “Provided we train properly, we have a realistic chance of a medal in Athens,” said Robertson as he watched Chen and Zhao get beaten in the semi-finals by Kim Dong-Moon and Ra Kyung-Min of South Korea. The speed and power play on show yesterday from the Chinese and Korean mixed pairs was easy to marvel at — and much appreciated by about 4,000 fans in the arena.
“That’s what you just can’t appreciate from watching the game on the television, the pace of play, the athleticism around court,” Robertson explained. “They’re so physically strong as well. That’s what was tough about playing them.”
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Maybe if Milton Keynes can develop some of the hallmarks of Jingjiang, there will soon be enough toughness on the other side of the net, too.