OLYMPICS DAY 7 : Sabbatically So

Saturday, 16 August 2008 05:24

After a frenetic start to the 2008 Olympic Games where defending champions and seeds fell way too early, the 7th day of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing was truly sabbatical, as the remaining seeds at the Games wrapped up their final and semi-final matches without a hint of drama or damage.

By Jan Lin, reporting live from Beijing (BIMC). Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

The women's doubles gold medal match went in favour of the higher seeded pair while the finals of the men's doubles, men's and women's singles events will all feature the undamaged top 2 seeds of each event. China may, for the first time in history, have a shot at all 5 Olympic golds. The promising results today have already equalled China's shot at 4 golds, which they had at the 2000 Sydney Games and which they converted to go on to take all 4 titles.

Victory was three times sweeter for China today when the host nation registered three significant victories with two at the expense of its neighbour Korea. Korea, who was a big winner at the 2004 Athens Games, suffered a double-death under the Chinese guns today when its men's and women's doubles were defeated in their respective semi-final and final by the Chinese second seeds.

The unseeded Korean men's doubles pair of Lee Jae Jin/Hwang Ji Man was outpaced by the 2nd-seeded pair of Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng in a match that left spectators no room to breathe. Emotions were running unusually high for the local lads especially, as they were in the run for not just a ticket to the final but also to go into the history book as the first Chinese pair to reach the Olympic men's doubles final.

The 36-minute match was literally a ride on a bullet train with the second set over in a blink of 12 minutes as frantic smashes littered the court. When the match concluded 22-20, 21-8 in favour of the Chinese duo, an extraordinarily emotional Cai Yun fell to his knees and stripped off his yellow-and-red jersey to flaunt his tattoo-embellished back.

Cai Yun shared the meaning behind tattooing, saying, "The tattoo on my back is a reminder for myself to remain courageous in face of difficulties." Cai, who was visibly agonised by the service fault calls he was receiving in the first game, continued, "I was under a lot of pressure when the service judge kept faulting me for my service, four times in total, thrice in the first set and that restricted my service options, it stopped me from serving long."

The 28-year-old Cai admitted that he was indeed overwhelmed by an indescribable emotion due to the fault service calls, he revealed, "I was getting tense towards the end but it was still manageable. I wasn't thinking too much [about the fault calls] and handled the 20-all deuce well.

"I was quite upset. I couldn't understand what the fault was about as I've never had problems with my service at previous international tournaments. Right to the crucial stages of the match, the service judge was still faulting my services, I just felt......"

"Otherwise for this match, we just had to play our usual game against our opponents. There was nothing we were particularly wary of. We just had to ensure we were playing at a good pace and there was not much threat they could pose to us then."

Cai/Fu's coaches, Li Yongbo and Tian Bingyi, have had the honour of being the only Chinese men to own a pair Olympic men's doubles bronze medals for the past 16 years. Their protégés are now in contention for a different colour medal and will wrestle for the gold with top seed Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia, who defeated the unseeded pair of Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen (pictured right) by scores of 21-19, 21-17.

Kido/Setiawan have now preserved the tradition of securing a men's doubles Olympic medal for Indonesia. Indonesia has never gone home from the Olympic Games without a medal in the men's doubles event and in fact, Indonesia is the only country that has never gone home from the Olympic Games without at least one gold medal from badminton.

China, which was gold-deprived at the 1992 Barcelona Games, has already bagged gold twice today when their number 1 and 2 seeds in the women's singles event - Xie Xingfang and Zhang Ning (pictured left) - marched into the women's singles final earlier in the day and later in the evening, their 2nd-seeded women's doubles pair of Du Jing/Yu Yang defeated Korea's Lee Hyo Jung/Lee Kyung Won to clinch their maiden Olympic title.

Du/Yu: "This is only the beginning."

Going down in scores of 21-15, 21-13, Korea's world number 4 Lee/Lee had an uninspired end to their Olympic gold hunt. Lee Kyung Won suffered an ankle injury in the course of the first game, while Lee Hyo Jung was just not finding her usual menacing touch this evening. The never-ending string of defensive errors diminished the Koreans' confidence and eventually their chances of bagging the elusive gold.

The only consolation for both players is that they both had a better Olympic outing than 2004. Lee Hyo Jung was a quarterfinalist at the 2004 Athens Games, while Lee Kyung Won's Olympic medal collection now comprises of a silver together with her bronze from Athens. Lee Hyo Jung still has a shot for gold when she pairs up with Lee Yong Dae in the mixed doubles semi-final on Saturday.

Du/Yu (pictured top left), on the other hand, struck gold on their first Olympic outing. Yu Yang revealed, "When our first-seeded seniors lost to the Japanese, we were determined to fight for the gold for China. Even though this is our first outing, we were really hoping to have a spot on the podium, which is why we have worked extremely hard for this.

"Our coach Li Yongbo particularly reminded us to be focussed 100% on the match and not be bothered by our opponent's injury during the match. Prior to the match, we had done a great deal of preparation. For me, before my match, I like to sleep, and sleep. I will feel very energised and sharp when I get to the match, and this makes me feel more excited than nervous.

Du Jing chipped in saying, "We may have been crowned the Olympic champions but we are still young. This title is an encouragement and a source of motivation for us. This is only the beginning. After the Games, I will choose to quickly put behind this achievement and work towards the future."

China's 3rd-seeded women's doubles pair of Wei Yili/Zhang Yawen avenged their compatriots Zhang Jiewen/Yang Wei to pocket the bronze by defeating Japan's unseeded pair of Miyuki Maeda/Satoko Suetsuna in their bronze medal play-off. With convincing scores of 21-17, 21-10, this victory will also be Zhang Yawen's swan song for China as the 24-year-old has recently announced her retirement post-Games.

With 2 golds in the basket for China, which was aiming for 3 prior to the start of the 2008 Olympic Games, the best bet for gold number 3 rests on the shoulders of the world number 1 men's singles tyrant -- Lin Dan. At the semi-final this evening, the top seed recorded a relatively effortless 21-12, 21-18 victory over his 22-year-old compatriot Chen Jin (pictured right), who is seeded 4th at the Games.

The 24-year-old Lin Dan will no doubt have a mountain to scale on Sunday. There will be plenty of resistance from his opponent in the finals, who is none other than the 2nd-seeded Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia. The Penangite has secured the first and only medal for Malaysia at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games after his skilful disposal of the always dangerous, if unseeded, Lee Hyun Il of Korea, in three games of 21-18, 13-21, 21-13.

The world number 2 was trailing by a big margin in the second game and made the conscious decision to concede the game and to refocus for the third. As Lee turned to his coach, Misbun Sidek, for advice before the tiebreaker, the 48-year-old former singles ace must have reminded his protégé to stay ahead at all cost, as a rejuvenated Chong Wei (pictured left) stormed to an insurmountable lead in the tiebreaker and never once looked back.

2008 Beijing Olympic Games Women's Singles Final:

(1) Xie Xingfang (China) vs (2) Zhang Ning (China)

2008 Beijing Olympic Games Men's Singles Final:

(1) Lin Dan (China) vs (2) Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia)

2008 Beijing Olympic Games Men's Doubles Final:

(1) Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan (Indonesia) vs (2) Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng (China)

For all Day 7 results, click HERE

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