Congratulations Emms, Robertson & Clark

[danbelcher]

About time we congratulated our three top international players for their great performances at the European championships. Nathan & Gail beat some top pairs to get to the top and Clark and Robertson beat the World Champions for their silver medal.

And let's give them some support for the Olympics as they could be bringing Great Britain back a medal

[GeorgeFrith]

Well said Daniel!

Lets get behind the players in the run up to the Olympics and show them that the country cares. This can only have a positive effect on the players performances knowing they are appreciated.

How? By attending events when they are put on like my World Class Exhibition on 23rd May (see earlier thread "World Class Badminton comes to Leicester again!) and by lobbying BBC and your local media as I do here in Leicester.

I think that badminton players in the UK need to be more passionate for the game (like Daniel) as in Asia and that will become apparent to the media who will then re-think there coverage. That will have a knock -on effect which will benefit the sport from every angle from grass roots to International success. Lets face it there doesn't seem to be a lot of praise from the media for their fantastic achievements in the European Individual Champs.

So yes, WELL DONE TO NATHAN, GAIL AND ANTHONY!!!

[dlp]

I agree George, again English success has not been reported, I wrote this letter to the Independent Newspaper:


England earned gold and Silver medals at a european championship last weekend in one of the most demanding , popular and competitive olympic sports...in the process we also beat reigning world champions and secured a top seeding for the olympics where we have genuine medal hopes. The sport? Badminton.

Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms (former world no.1s) took the mixed Gold at the europeans, in the process ending our olympic bronze medallist Simon Archer's olympic qualifying hopes and beat two other world class pairs.

In the mens event Robertson and Clark beat the reigning world champions Paaske /Rasmussen to secure silver.

Somehow in the 20 plus pages of independent sport this Monday these extraordinary achievements were missed!

I buy the independent for the sports coverage, not the football coverage...

[danbelcher]

Absolutely right D Petersen and I agree with you 100%, it is frustrating such success is not reported but let’s save this topic for another thread.

I am hoping people will respond to this thread by getting behind our Olympic squad.

I believe tomorrow is the end of qualification so we will see who is heading for Athens and whether Archer and Kellogg have managed it.

Anthony Clark has already said on badders.com that audience participation raises his game so I think we should let him know that we are supporting them and following their progress.

I can’t afford to go to Athens but I have booked the time off work in the hope that the BBC will display such excellent TV coverage as they did for the Commonwealth Games with their interactive service.

[dlp]

To give credit to the independent they did reply to my letter regarding lack of coverage:

"Thank you for your email. You are quite right: despite the shortage of
space, we should have carried a report in the newspaper. We will try to do
better in future.

Best wishes

PAUL NEWMAN
Sports Editor"

[GeorgeFrith]

Well done D. Peterson for your persistence in getting a positive response from a national tabloid.

Just wish there more like you around. If so we would definitely be in a better state in terms of media coverage. (and the rest of the sport would be better off in every respect!)