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
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.
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.
While Chen is still a strong contender in the women’s singles despite her defeat and surrendered the world number one title to Tai this week, the losses in the mixed doubles caused huge alarm as China occupy the top two rankings in the world.
Top seeds and defending champions Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong recorded their worst performance since they joined forces in 2018 as they were surprisingly beaten by Dutch pair Robin Tabeling and Selena Piek in the second round
Second seeds Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping reached the last eight but were no match for eventual champions Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti of Indonesia.
“Where are so called double insured mixed doubles pairs, they both lost in the early stages!” one fan cried in online sports portal, Sina Sports. “This is weird as the two world class pairs were stopped in or before the quarter-finals. What about the most secured medal hopes for the Tokyo Games?”
The women’s doubles defending champions Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, also the number one seeds, were stopped in the quarter-finals by Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takakashi of Japan.
The Badminton World Federation have suspended all tournaments after the All England Open until late April due to wide spread of coronavirus globally.
The All England Open is always hailed as a rehearsal for the Summer Games of that year.
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At the 2012 event, Lin Dan and Li Xuerui of China respectively clinched the men’s and women’s singles titles in Birmingham before their success at the London Olympics.
In the women’s doubles, Zhao Yunlei and Tian Qing also clinched the title in Birmingham before their gold medal victory in the summer, where Chinese shuttlers swept all five titles.
