Beijing: The chairman of the Chinese Badminton Association (CBA) – Zhang Jun said on Saturday that he and the organization had finalized their 14-shuttler roster for the rescheduled 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and had submitted the list to the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
It’s no big surprise for shuttlers selected to represent China in Tokyo. Since a country can only send a maximum of two players on each event to the Olympics, China had picked Chen Yufei and He Bingjiao in the women’s singles event, and the World No. 17 Wang Zhi Yi was left out the list.
Zhang said the China team can win gold in mixed doubles, and women’s doubles events. Their main opponents for these categories were players from the host country, Japan.
“We have the strongest chance of winning gold in mixed doubles because Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong, Wang Yilu/Huang Dongping both ranked first and second in the Race to Tokyo rankings respectively. We also can compete with the Japanese players in the women’s doubles event,” said Zhang.
Japan’s Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota and Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara currently ranked first and third respectively in the Race to Tokyo women’s doubles rankings, while Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan, Du Yue/Li Yinhui of China ranked second and seventh respectively.
The reigning Olympic champion, Chen Long will spearhead China’s challenge in the men’s singles event together with Shi Yuqi, while “Twin Towers”, Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen became the only men’s doubles pair qualified for the Olympics.
The Chinese badminton team swept all 5 gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics, took home the men’s singles gold through Chen Long and men’s doubles gold through Zhang Nan/Fu Haifeng at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Although the Chinese team hasn’t competed in any international tournament since the 2020 All England, China also capable of winning gold in the men’s and women’s events.
Here’s the list of the Chinese badminton players participating in the Tokyo Olympics:
Men’s singles: Shi Yuqi, Chen Long
Women’s singles: Chen Yufei, He Bingjiao
Men’s Doubles: Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen
Women’s Doubles: Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan, Du Yue/Li Yinhui
Mixed Doubles: Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong, Wang Yilu/Huang Dongping
