The just completed BWF World Championship is a rehearsal to the London Olympics. From the looks of it, badminton is a well received sports, with team China vs the World.
As usual, China repeated her triumph of the previous year in Paris by sweeping all 5 gold medals.
The Women's doubles is an All China Affair with Yu Yang/Wang Xaoli doing the honours of serenading the London crowd with the 1st tune of 'March of the Volunteers'.
The highlight of the final is definitely the men's singles, between Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei. That is as close as one can get on parity. The game last all three sets and went into overtime, 23-21. Rallies, attacking play, defensive play and great all around show by the 2 best badminton players on the planet.
The men's doubles was also exciting, pitting World Champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng against the 2nd ranked pair from Korean Ko Sung-hyun and Yoo Yeon-seong. The game was fast and furious. Lifting the shuttle automatically results in the shuttle landing on the floor. The dominance of Cai Yun at the net coupled with Fu Haifeng's deadly smashes resulting in a 4th World Championship title for the Chinese pair.
The Women's singles was no surprise as Wang Yihan netted a gold medal for China. The lanky native of Shanghai pushing and pulling the much shorter and smaller Taiwanese Cheng Shao-chieh like a rag doll all over court.
The mixed doubles saw the emergence of new British partnership between Englishman Chris Adcock and Scots Imogen Bankier. This new pair was a revelation and they managed to stun/upset more illustrious opponents. Unfortunately for them, their opponent from China was more experienced and tactically aware to take advantage of the British pair's weakness. The lefty Adcock did not managed to rain down his hard smashes with consistency while Imogen's usually deadly netkills/pushes failed to hit home. The Chinese pair managed to play a safe game with high percentage shot selection to frustrate the British pair. That earn China the fifth Gold medal.
The World Championship saw new line of clothing by Yonex, Victor and Li-Ning.
Here Gade wearing a new Yonex camouflage jersey.
A racquet, I used to own;
Wrap with a towel grip similar to professional players, very thin layer with a thick knob at the butt cap.
The frame is pretty sturdy.
The shaft serial number and Date of manufacture indicates it's one of the early production Arcsaber 7.
The green color and the Yonex logo indicates it's a genuine racquets as described by the manufacturer. Link here.
