Chinese crown wobbles

Chinese crown wobbles

Dave Thompson, Reuters/Athens

China's Olympic badminton crown wobbled in Athens as ex-power
Indonesia recovered some of their past glories after victory in
the prestige men's singles with Taufik Hidayat finally fulfilling
his huge potential.

The Chinese, who won four out of five golds in Sydney, dropped
to three in Athens and it could have been two but for a late
rally by mixed doubles pair Zhang Jun and Gao Lin.

They just ousted battling Britons Nathan Robertson and Gail
Emms in a classic three-set final, edging home to retain their
Sydney title after trailing in the decider.

The big surprise of the tournament was China's failure to hang
on to the men's singles title after the first round exit of hot
favorite Lin Dan and subsequent departures of the highly rated
Chen Hong and Bao Chunlai.

That left the way clear for Indonesia's stormy petrel Hidayat
to glitter on the world stage.

A controversial figure whose temper has sometimes eclipsed his
talent, Hidayat swept past Shon Seung-mo of South Korea 15-8 15-7
in a one-sided final.

His victory had been signposted by Denmark's Peter Gade,
beaten by the new champion in the quarterfinals after fighting a
familiar lonely battle against the might of Asia.

His ex-fiancee, fellow Dane Camilla Martin, is well aware of
the matching syndrome in the women's singles though ironically
she was beaten in her final Olympics by a European, Britain's
Tracey Hallam.

Hallam then fell to Mia Audina, but the former Indonesian, now
representing the Netherlands, was outlasted in the final by
Chinese world champion Zhang Ning who won 8-11 11-6 11-7.

Top seeds Zhang Jiewen and Yang Wei won an all-Chinese clash
in the women's doubles and Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon kept the
South Korean flag flying in the men's doubles.

Crowds, disappointing at first, picked up impressively for the
later stages, but will be eclipsed in four years time in Beijing
with the sport back in one of its strongholds.