Chengdu: The China badminton team is currently conducting intensive closed-door training in Chengdu to fine-tune its badminton players’ conditions before the Tokyo Games.
Of course, the Chinese team’s ultimate goal is to bring home gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
After the Olympic qualification period ended sooner than expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vice President of the Chinese Badminton Association, Xia Xuanze admitted that undoubtedly had a huge impact on Chinese players.
“The cancellation of the India Open, Malaysia Open, and Singapore Open has caused our players not able to find their rhythms competing in international tournaments. Secondly, we lost the chances of earning more qualification points. We originally planned to participate in these three tournaments to earn more qualification points, which would help the Olympic rankings. Right now, Chen Long ranked 6th and Shi Yuqi ranked 11th in men’s singles, while Chen Yufei ranked 1st, and He Bingjiao ranked 9th in women’s singles. Compared with previous Olympics, our seedings in Tokyo would not be very ideal,” said Xia.
Xia said the Chinese players might be nervous to play straight in Olympics without having competed in international tournaments for more than a year.
“We haven’t played in international competitions for a long time. Right now, we can only rely on technical and tactical videos to study our opponents. Nevertheless, we are going to conduct a simulation tournament to let the players get used to the Olympics atmosphere. We only have less than two months left, we must be fully prepared for all challenges. Coaches should be more careful in developing player’s skills and tactics, and also time management,” added Xia.
“Even though we haven’t played in international tournaments for more than a year, but realistically, players from other countries also have not played too many international competitions as well. We have to slowly increase our confidence through training,” continued Xia.
Xia also believed the Chinese women’s singles players were in a better position to compete in Tokyo than the men’s singles players.
“Chen Long, Shi Yuqi, Chen Yufei, He Bingjiao, and Wang Zhiyi have all qualified for the Olympic Games, but according to the rules, we can only send a maximum of two players for each event to the Olympics. So we are going to finalize the list based on their performance in international tournaments and where they are in the Race to Tokyo Olympic rankings.”
“I am satisfied with the intensity I saw in matches between Chen Yufei and Wang Zhiyi. The men’s singles department is still adjusting their conditions and forms.”
“Shi Yuqi was injured in 2019 and he returned to the court just 98 days after surgery trying to earn more Olympic qualification points. The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics actually gave him an additional year to recover. His priority now is to get back to his best form.”
“Chen Long has made some good tactical adjustment under the guidance of Li Mao and coach Chen Yu. He is still in the process of getting used to the new playing style. I could see Shi and Chen have shown changes in their games at some domestic tournaments.”
Xia stressed that the Chinese badminton team is currently focusing on the details of preparing shuttlers for the Games. The closed-door training would help shuttlers to put all their energy into training without external disturbance.
