China underlines superiority but Indonesia loses
China underlines superiority but Indonesia loses
GLASGOW (Agencies): China kept a firm grip on the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship with a convincing win over former winner South Korea in the final round of group matches Thursday.
But there was no joy for China's traditional big rivals Indonesia which was edged out 3-2 by Europe's strongest country, Denmark.
China, led by All-England champion, Dong Jiong, the top seeds won the opening three rubbers in straight games to dent the Korean hopes of regaining the crown they took in 1991 and 1993.
It was only after the match was over as a contest that the Chinese relaxed their grip, allowing the Koreans to take the two dead rubbers, the men's and mixed doubles, to make the final score 3-2.
Ge Fei and Gu Jun set the Chinese on the road to victory with a 15-4, 15-9 win in the women's doubles, and Dong, despite trailing 3-6 in the first game, made it 2-0 with a 15-9, 15-6 scoreline against Jang Chun-wong.
The holders rested All-England champion and world number one Ye Zhaoying in the women's singles, but the petite world number two, Gong Zhichao, proved to be a more than able deputy. In a tie lasting just nine minutes, she defeated Lee Joo-hyun 11-5, 11-0 to wrap up the Chinese win.
The Indonesia-Denmark game went all the way with the Danes edging home in a five-hour marathon after a hard-fought win in the mixed doubles, Jens Eriksen and Marlene Thomsen triumphing 15-6, 15-12.
The Danes now have high hopes of reaching the final for the first time. They meet South Korea in the semifinals while China plays Indonesia.
RCTI will broadcast live the finals of the Sudirman Cup at 8 p.m. Western Indonesian Time (WIB) today.
The Danish victory was teed up in the opening match by Olympic gold medalist Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen who overcame world champion Hariyanto Arbi 17-16, 12-15, 15-4.
The Dane has not been at his best since Atlanta but he came good Thursday.
"After so many months struggling to hit form, I now feel I am back to by best and this was a very important win for me," Hoyer- Larsen said.
"I did suffer from post-Olympic euphoria, but I now feel my mental toughness is back to 100 percent."
Malaysia
The Malaysians, coached for the first time by the former Danish world number one Morten Frost, scored its third success 4-1 over Canada. Six of the team are 21 or under.
"I am very pleased with them," Frost said. "They are coping with the pressure, getting valuable experience, and I believe that we will now be promoted to group one."
Less pleased is the World Championships director Anne Smillie who, for the second day, had to deal with a well-known character becoming embroiled in a row with stewards.
Complaints were made to Smillie that Roy Ward, an Australian who is Vice-President of the International Badminton Federation (IBF), on two separate occasions used abusive language when stopped at the doors.
"I've told him I don't care who it is, I won't have my staff being treated like that, and the next time he will be ejected from the building," said Smillie.
Previously Simon Archer, the England international who is one of the world's leading men's and mixed doubles players, was reported to the English manager Steve Baddeley after allegations that he swore at a steward.
There was better news of the IBF's President, Lu Shengrong. Lu, the only Asian female President of an international sports federation, has been elected a member of the council the ASOIF, the association of summer Olympic sports federations.
Last year Lu was elected a member of the International Olympic Committee.
Meanwhile, world grand prix titleholder Fung Permadi inadvertently provoked a protest, missed a match point and suffered a shock defeat in the Sudirman Cup.
The former Indonesian who has emigrated to Chinese Taipei shocked the German team when he walked on court to play them because the men's singles name on the Chinese-Taipei team sheet had been Chen Feng.
This prompted the Germans to make an official protest and for a few minutes it seemed that the start of the crucial group two promotion battle might be delayed while the contradiction was being sorted out.
"Fortunately I had done some refereeing in the Far East and I knew that this was Fung's Chinese name now that he has moved to another country," said Englishman Keith Hawthorne, the World Championships referee.
"I managed to persuade them that it was really one and the same person and that the Taiwanese had not realized that everyone knows Fung Permadi by a very different name from that which they use."
Results:
Group 1A China 3 South Korea 2
Results (Chinese names first):
Men's singles: Dong Jiong bt Jang Chun-woong 15-9, 15-6
Men's doubles: Ge Cheng/Tao Xiaoqiang lost to Kang Kyung-jin/Ha Tae-kwon 3-15, 10-15
Women's singles: Gong Zhichao bt Lee Joo-hyun 11-5, 11-0
Women's doubles: Ge Fei/Gu Jun bt Kim Mee-hyang/Kim Shin-young 15-4, 15-9
Mixed doubles: Liu Yong/Ge lost to Kim Dong-moon/Ra Kyung-min 15-7, 2-15, 11-15
Group 1B Denmark 3 Indonesia 2
Men's singles: Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen bt Hariyanto Arbi 17-16, 12-15, 15-4
Men's doubles: Jan Holst-Christensen/Michael Sogaard lost to Ricky Subagja/Rexy Mainaky 15-18, 12-15
Women's singles: Camilla Martin lost to Susi Susanti 6-11, 3-11
Women's doubles Rikke Olsen/Helene Kirkegaard bt Eliza/Zelin Resiana 17-14, 14- 17, 15-10
Mixed doubles: Jens Eriksen/Marlene Thomsen bt Flandy Limpele/Minarti Timur 15- 6, 15-12
Group 3A Australia 3 Hong Kong 2 Finland 3 Austria 2
Group 3B New Zealand 3 Scotland 2 India 4 Norway 1
Group 5 play-offs: Kazakhstan 4 Belgium 1 Portugal 3 Peru 2 France 4 Spain 1
Group 7 play-offs: Luxembourg 4 Argentina 1 Italy 5 Cyprus 0 Slovakia 4 Mexico 1 Brazil 3 Malta 2