British Badminton Is Mixing It Up

Just when it looked as though British badminton was going nowhere, two bright sparks reignited hopes of a home medal at the London Olympics.

Since the sport was promoted from an exhibition event to a fully-fledged member of the Olympic family in 1992, Britain has won just two medals, one silver and one bronze. The powerhouses of the game lie in Asia - China, Malaysia and Korea just three of the nations that dominate the international scene - leaving Britain as a fairly minor country, left to plough the fields of the Badminton World Federation’s third and fourth tier Grand Prix events for titles.

The BWF Super Series, launched at the beginning of the 2007 season, has seen only a single event end up in British hands; that was Anthony Clark and Nathan Robertson at the 2009 Singapore Open. Last year’s Commonwealth games witnessed a new low for the sport, as no gold medals were placed around British necks for the first time since the sport was inaugurated into its fold.

So where does this tale of woe change? August came around with little under a year to go until the opening of the London Olympics and test events in full flow as part of the preparations. The BWF decided to hold the 2011 World Championships at Wembley Arena to feature in the test calendar, hoping to win the hearts and minds of British fans in the process.

The remotest chance of a medal was with the English mixed doubles pair of Robertson and Jenny Wallwork, the top ranked of any Britons over the entirety of the five events. Robertson has long been one of the faces of English badminton, rising to prominence during the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where he claimed a silver medal with Gail Emms in the mixed, garnering the sport a lot of media attention and a new found audience. He his previous partner also managed to strike gold at the 2006 World Championships, England’s first in 23 years.

Unfortunately, Robertson and Wallwork were downed in the second round by an unseeded Malaysian pair. The remaining collection of assorted Brits fell by the wayside, leaving only the partnership of England’s Chris Adcock and Scotland’s Imogen Bankier in the round of 16, facing the task of Japanese 15^th seeds Shintaro Ikeda and Reiko Shiota for a place in the quarter-finals.

Burgeoning Talents

Adcock and Bankier first set foot on the Super Series tour towards the end of 2010 as a new pair, losing out at the second stage of the French Open. They followed up with a trio of tournament wins, taking the crowns in the Grand Prix Scottish, Irish and Italian International events at the close of the year, before taking up a regular spot in the travelling English team on the top rung of the international tour. Only once did they pass the first stage of any Super Series tournament, leaving their success at Wembley a shock to the badminton world.

They disposed of the Japanese in three games, before proceeding to delight the local support with a typically British story of underdogs come good. They eliminated fourth seeds Tao Jiaming and Tian Qing in the quarters, before sending Indonesian second seeds Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir out in straight games at the semi-final stage.

They fell at the final hurdle to the world number one pair of Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei from China, ending the tournament on somewhat of an anti-climax, though the initial disappointment soon turned into pride.

”It's hard to end the tournament on a loss when we've been on a high all week. But, when we reflect, we've produced some fantastic performances and had brilliant results against top 10 pairs," Bankier said to BBC Sport immediately after the final.

The Numbers Game

In the months since, Adcock and Bankier’s world ranking has risen from 18^th up to 12^th - they hit a high of 11^th – while the well-travelled Robertson and Wallwork have slipped from inside the top ten to 15^th, falling to a low of 20^th in early November.

As per Olympic qualifying rules, this means that it would be the younger pair who will clinch the British spot at the games come July, potentially leaving Robertson in a quandary. Prior to his top ranked status being usurped by the hungry Anglo-Scottish partnership, he had spoken to the media about his plans to retire after one last hurrah at London 2012, though he now appears to have a fight on his hands.

In doubles competition only 16 pairs will make it to the showpiece event at the games, but two teams from the same country can only qualify if they are both in the world’s top eight. This leaves the top two British partnerships with a shootout for the place, assuming they aren’t overtaken by another couple looking for a break.

Scotsman Robert Blair and Gabby White, ironically Adcock’s girlfriend, are back at 22^nd in the world, yet they had the opportunity to gain points that their rivals didn’t this week. Blair and White finished 7^th in this season’s Super Series rankings, qualifying them for the tour finals in Liuzhou, China – thanks in part to their appearance in the semi-finals of the Malaysian Open at the turn of the year, and the quarter-final they achieved at the China Masters.

The world rankings take the 10 best tournament results, based on the points received, and total them up to give a final place. Despite losing all three games at the Masters Finals, Blair and White took home a haul of 6050 points, replacing their first round exit at the Indonesian Open.

With a little bit of calculation, this takes them up to a year ending ranking of 15^th, the place currently occupied by Robertson and Wallwork, putting them straight back into the race for Olympic contention.

The Olympic qualification period finishes across all events on May 3^rd with the release of the BWF world rankings, it is likely that only then will we know identity the successful pair, if any, who make it to Wembley Arena.

The opportunity to capture the memories of a lifetime on the biggest stage of them all, and in front of a partisan home crowd, is there for the taking. Be it the first of many for Adcock and Bankier, or a swansong for Robertson, this is the chance to end years of hurt for British badminton.