MADRID, Sept 24 - China completed a brilliantly
successful world championships in Madrid this week by sweeping to victory in
three of Sunday's four finals.
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Xie Xingfang of China
(R) holds up her gold medal next to silver medallist and compatriot Zhang
Ning after their women's singles final match at the World Badminton
Championships in Madrid September 24, 2006.
[Reuters]
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The powerhouse of world badminton had
already notched a gold in the women's doubles on Saturday and they added
triumphs in the men's and women's singles and the men's doubles on the final
day.
Of a total 20 medals at stake, China won 10, including golds in four of the
five events.
Chinese world number two Lin Dan, who lost in last year's final, fought his
way back from a game down to beat fellow countryman Bao Chunlai 18-21 21-17
21-12 and take his first world singles title.
Xie Xingfang made a successful defence of her crown when she beat 2003
champion Zhang Ning to win another all-Chinese affair 21-16 21-14 in a
repetition of last year's final in the women's singles.
Top seeds Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun finished by rattling off a 21-9 21-13
victory over England's Anthony Clark and Robert Blair in the men's doubles.
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The Chinese hegemony was broken only in the mixed doubles where Nathan
Robertson and Gail Emms beat friends and training partners Clark and Donna
Kellogg to win gold in an all-English final.
The 23-year-old Lin, seeded two in Madrid, was edged out by Bao in the first
game but stepped up a gear in the second and ran out an easy winner in the
third.
Lin won the silver at last year's worlds, losing to Indonesia's Taufik
Hidayat in the final and had been in sparkling form in the buildup, winning the
Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei Opens in recent months.
EXTRA INCENTIVE
"Losing to Taufik last year gave me an extra incentive for this year," said
Lin. "I've worked really hard to win this.
"Although I won the World Cup last year, the world championships are more
important to me and it was great that China won all three medals."
World number eight Bao, who won the Korean Open last month, said that the
match had turned on an error he made when the scores were level at 16-16 in the
second game.
"I made a small error in the second game and that was very costly but I'm
very happy with the medal and I played positively throughout."
Xie, who won both the Hong Kong Open and the All-England this year, became
the first woman successfully TO defend the title since China's Ye Zhaoying, who
won the title in 1995 and 1997.
"I think I was more excited when I won my first world championship," said
Xie. "I think I made fewer mistakes out there and controlled the draft better
than Zhang Ning."
Robertson and Emms, the Olympic silver medallists, started strongly and
forced compatriots Kellogg and Clark to play catch-up throughout, winning the
first game 21-15 and storming to victory in the second 21-12.
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