Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Reversal, maturity, expectation.
Zhang Jun, President of the Chinese Badminton Association, summarized the National Feather 2023
Xinhua News Agency reporters Ji Ye, Ding Wenxian, Xu Shihao, Tian Guangyu.
At the end of the year, the 2023 badminton season has finally come to an end, and the new 2024 season is waiting in Kuala Lumpur in two weeks' time. Taking advantage of this recuperation period, the Chinese badminton team is undergoing winter training at the Training Bureau of the General Administration of Sports of China. During this period, Zhang Jun, chairman of the Chinese Badminton Association, was interviewed by Xinhua News Agency reporters, summarizing the gains and losses of the national badminton in 2023, analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of the five individual events, and looking forward to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Sub-heading) 2023 Keywords: reversal, maturity, expectation.
Looking back on 2023, the national team has won the Sudirman Cup three times in a row, won the Asian Games men's team championship and the Asian mixed team championship, and its performance in individual events is also remarkable.
Zhang Jun summed up Guoyu's 2023 with three key words, the first is "reversal". In the semifinals of this year's Sudirman Cup, men's doubles Liu Yuchen and Ou Xuanyi turned the tide with the Japanese team holding four match points and equalized the score, and the Chinese team finally defeated the opponent 3:2 to advance. In the men's team final of the Hangzhou Asian Games, from 0:2 to 3:2, the Chinese team once again won the championship in a shocking reversal.
The second is "maturity". Zhang Jun said: "The young players of the national feather emerged this year, such as Li Shifeng and Weng Hongyang in the men's singles, Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning in the women's doubles, and Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin in the mixed doubles. ”
The third is "anticipation". Sitting on the sidelines of the hot training ground, Zhang Jun, who once won the mixed doubles championship at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 2004 Athens Olympics, said with emotion, "I feel that everyone is looking forward to the Paris 2024 Olympics!"”
Sub-heading) Paris Olympics: Solid Preparations, All-out Gold Medal.
In just over seven months, the Paris Olympics will kick off. Zhang Jun said that the national feather will go all out to attack the five individual Olympic champions.
The Paris Olympic points competition will be held from May 1 this year to April 28 next year, and so far, the five individual events of the national feather have met the full participation requirements. However, in Zhang Jun's view, it is useless to have a full quota for the Olympics at this stage, because the ranking will fluctuate after each point competition, and the national badminton players must carefully prepare for each stop.
After returning from the Japan Masters in November, the national team will start winter training until the end of February next year, after which it will travel to Europe. During the winter training period, individual team members will go to Southeast Asia in January next year to participate in 2 to 4 races. In order to improve the physical reserve of the team members, Guoyu has formulated an exclusive training plan for each team member, and also organizes the whole team to go to Xiangshan Mountain every week to climb the mountain for exercise and conduct collective morning exercises every week.
Badminton is played almost every week, but Zhang Jun believes that after a long season, it is normal for players to be tired, but during the competition, continuous participation will make the string in the hearts of the players tense all the time. After the winter training, he believes that the mental fatigue of the players will be alleviated, and at the same time, it will also help the team to prepare for the new season in better condition.
Sub-heading) Individual Analysis: Each has its own strengths and still needs to be improved.
Regarding the state and challenges of the national feather players in the five individual events, Zhang Jun commented one by one.
In men's singles, Shi Yuqi gradually regained his form after his comeback from the ban last year, and Zhang Jun believes that Shi Yuqi needs to overcome the mentality problem next. The 23-year-old Li Shifeng won the weighty All England and Asian Games men's singles championships, and won a key point for the Asian Games men's team to win the championship. Zhang Jun affirmed him, but pointed out that his consistency was lacking, and the number of matches against Denmark's Viktor Axelsen was relatively small.
Zhang Jun believes that the men's singles competition in the badminton world is in a melee stage. "Axelsen is probably the strongest, the others are about the same strength, but Axelsen is more likely to lose now than last year, and I think there will be more uncertainty in the men's singles at the Paris Olympics. ”
Women's Singles Olympic champion Chen Yufei will move forward with a weight in 2023, losing more than she wins against her main opponents, but she has surpassed herself in the continuous summary. Zhang Jun believes that Chen Yufei is undergoing a transformation, "After winning the championship in Tokyo, Chen Yufei's main opponents have strengthened their targeted research on her, and the juniors have also begun to form an impact, which naturally causes her to carry a burden." But every time she loses, as Chen Yufei herself said, she will be stronger, and she will realize that she is insufficient. ”
Zhang Jun said that this year, South Korean player An Xiying has made great progress. He hopes that on the basis of Chen Yufei, the young players of the national feather women's singles will jointly attack major opponents like An Seying and Japan's Akane Yamaguchi.
Four years ago in Tokyo, the national team failed to achieve a full quota, with only one pair competing in the men's doubles. Today, Leung Wai Keng, Wang Chang, Liu Yuchen, Ou Xuanyi and other combinations have carried the banner of national feather men's doubles. Zhang Jun admits that the top 10 in the men's doubles world rankings all have the strength to win Olympic gold medals, and although Leung Wai Keng and Wang Chang are currently ranked No. 1 in the world, they sometimes keep losing points. Liu Yuchen Ou Xuanyi turned the tide in the Sudirman Cup, which shows that the psychological quality of the two is excellent, but Liu Yuchen's injury needs to be controlled, and the movement speed on the field also needs to be changed.
In Zhang Jun's view, women's doubles world No. 1 Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan have better and better control of the pace of the game after the defeat in the Tokyo Olympic final, but they are slightly tired in continuous battles, resulting in inconsistent performance.
Another women's doubles pair, Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning, won the first Super 750 championship in their careers in the second half of the year, and Zhang Jun admitted that the process of the young pair from the youth arena to the senior arena was indeed smoother than he imagined. And Tan Ning is switching from singles to doubles, the difficulty will be greater, and there will be more room for improvement in the future. In addition, Zhang Shuxian and Zheng Yu are also in the competitive echelon for the national women's doubles Olympic qualification. The main opponents of the women's doubles are from South Korea and Japan.
In mixed doubles, there are three pairs of national feathers competing for Olympic qualification, namely Zheng Siwei, Huang Yaqiong, Feng Yanzhe, Huang Dongping, Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin. Zhang Jun said that these three pairs of combinations form an echelon of old, middle and young people. In addition, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, France and Denmark also have a strong mixed doubles pair. (ENDS).