No gold for China at worst All England Open badminton in 25 years

Chen Yufei’s women’s singles loss caps disappointing tournament that saw favourites crash out early

Fans query results ahead of forthcoming Olympics in Tokyo as tournament seen as predictor for Summer Games

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Chen Yufei of China loses her title to Taiwan's Tai Tzu Ying in the women’s singles final as Chinese shuttlers record their worst performance at the All England Open Championships in 25 years. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:51pm, 16 Mar 2020Updated: 10:00pm, 16 Mar 2020

An early warning ahead of Tokyo 2020 sounded out for badminton heavyweights China as mainland athletes recorded their worst performance in 25 years at the All England Open Championships, which were completed over the weekend.

At Arena Birmingham where the BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament took place, Chinese shuttlers did not win a gold medal after Chen Yufei failed to defend her title in the women’s singles following her defeat by Tai Tzu-Ying of Taiwan in the final.

Meanwhile, Du Yue and Li Yinhui also suffered similar fate in the women’s doubles final where they were defeated by their Japanese opponents.

The last time that China failed to achieve a gold medal at the longest-running badminton tournament was in 1995. Since then the mainlanders have always been a force to-be-reckoned with on the world stage.

Tai Tzu-Ying of Taiwan takes her third women’s singles crown at the All England Open Badminton Championships. Photo: Reuters

With the Olympic Games set to begin in just four month time, mainland officials and fans are worried if they can improve in time for Tokyo this summer.