Not good enough

[badmintoncoach]

Any views on Englands European Bronze Medal ? Did this really happen? with all the funding going into badminton England should we not be achieving more? Lets see what happens this week in Japan ? I hope im wrong but english badminton seems to be going backwards any thoughts?

[CWB]

Any views on Englands European Bronze Medal ? Did this really happen? with all the funding going into badminton England should we not be achieving more? Lets see what happens this week in Japan ? I hope im wrong but english badminton seems to be going backwards any thoughts?

Well, maybe the injuries that many of the pleyers now have were the cause of the Europeans results. You must certainly now adjust your expectations for the TC and UC.

[The Guru]

English badminton is going through a difficult time at the moment. There has been a lot of changes over the past 12 months, and they are generally not positive ones. England are in for tough time at the Thomas and Uber Cup finals this week. Ghaffar, Robertson, Clark, Blair, Archer are all not playing in Japan. Hallam, Emms and Kellogg again not in Japan. Our top 8 players not representing their country. Why??? I have seen an article by head coach Ian Wright pointing the finger at a crazy tournament schedule, is this not the same for every country or is it just an easy excuse???

[Helen D]

Other European teams do not play in the Commonwealth games, and Asian teams did not play in the European championships, so other teams have not played as many major events as England in the past month or two.

England won 1 gold and three bronze in the Europeans this year, two years ago it was 1 gold and 1 silver, they failed to win a medal in the team event in Geneva two years ago and of course won bronze this year. In the Commonwealths this year they won 2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze compared with 2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze in 2002.

Last time around we only had one team reach the Thomas and Uber cup finals, so this is also an improvement.

[JoeWright]

Is it the Commonwealth and Europeans that Ian Wright is referring to?

These aren't, by any stretch of the imagination, major tournaments.

Joe

[CWB]

Is it the Commonwealth and Europeans that Ian Wright is referring to?

These aren't, by any stretch of the imagination, major tournaments.

Joe

Well, in Ian Wright's view they appear to be. Mine too. Read the article on the home page of this site.

[JoeWright]

Well here's my view (based on opposition and iconic status) from best to worst:

World Champs, 6* Opens, 5* Opens, 4* Opens, Thomas/Uber Cups [although this could be in a separate list], Olympics, Asian champs, then all in a mix: other Opens, Commenwealth, Europeans, etc...

Joe

[dlp]

I think we came fourth last time, isn't that an improvement?

If funding and the set up in this country was so good why do our players have to travel to Germany and Denmark to play professional leagues?

We've been playing catch up at u21 level to Germany for several years, you can't instantly fix anything with funding.

When Clark/Robertson and Archer/Blair were the pairs we had one pair at 8 in the world and another very strong pair, challenging the Danes well, but with changes in pairs and coaches they seem to be a fraction off the top pairs now.

Womens doubles we only really have one pair at the moment. Womens singles Hallam is as good as any english player in recent times and Cann is playing well. If our women are losing to Asians in the euros you can't compare that with 10 years ago.

Mens singles as ever is the most competitive and hardest to catch up in.

While we develop talented players they seem to only come along infrequently, Denmark always seem to have a good age spread in their squad with players at the end, middle and start of their development, except in WS where they had Camilla Martin for years and seem to be struggling.

[The Guru]

Helen D, at the 2002 C0mmonwealths England won 2 Gold (Team & Mixed), 1 Silver (Ladies Singles) and 4 bronze ( Mixed, 1 ladies doubles and 2 mens doubles) medals. I was in the crowd supporting. So they did not do as well this time, and more significantly they won Team Gold, the major prize.

[Helen D]

My mistake, however in this year's Commonwealths you actually had to win the bronze medal match to recieve a medal, in 2002 losing semi finalists automatically recieved bronze medals.

[scsiscan]

Its no good ian Wright complaining about the schedule. He is the England manager and if he thought the schedule was too tight then he should have set a priority and pulled out from one of them. Politically difficult but will only get worse if he doesn't make a stand.

Now he has got to the most important of the three events with no players. Congratulations........

As allways the manager must take the blame. Seems like to didn't learn much from his 10 years in France.




English badminton is going through a difficult time at the moment. There has been a lot of changes over the past 12 months, and they are generally not positive ones. England are in for tough time at the Thomas and Uber Cup finals this week. Ghaffar, Robertson, Clark, Blair, Archer are all not playing in Japan. Hallam, Emms and Kellogg again not in Japan. Our top 8 players not representing their country. Why??? I have seen an article by head coach Ian Wright pointing the finger at a crazy tournament schedule, is this not the same for every country or is it just an easy excuse???

[dlp]

While the Thomas/Uber cups is the top event in world badminton terms I'm guessing in terms of England and the players goals it is the least valuable. If we field full teams or weakened teams the result would likely be similar and there is no relegation in the cup events, qualification is the same next time.

While the CWG is the easiest of the 3 back to back events it offers the best chances of medals and the most TV coverage by far. In the europeans we should have had a good chance in the mixed, but having won a european title previousley I'm guessing Emms/Robertson would be happy to go for the CWG gold as a priority.

I don't think many in England know much about T & U cup, its format, history etc, so BE have probably got their priorities right on that basis.

[cky]

what is the next comp coming up where england can recover from there resent bad results

[kie]

I think england did well in japan with all the injuries what do we expect ??