The 2024 French Open Badminton Championships and Paris Olympic Test Match started on the 5th, and the Chinese team played with all the main forces, not only to adapt to the Olympic venue in advance, but also to make the final sprint to get the Olympic quota.
On March 5, Li Shifeng returned the ball in the game. On the same day, in the first round of the men's singles of the French Open Badminton Championships held in Paris, France, Chinese player Li Shifeng defeated Japanese player Watanabe Hangki 2:0 and advanced to the next round. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Aurelian Morisal).
In previous years, the French Open was held in late October, but this year, due to the Paris Olympics, the competition was brought forward to March as an Olympic test event, and the venue was chosen at the La Chapelle Arena, the badminton venue of the Paris Olympics.
Among the players of the Chinese team that played that day, except for Weng Hongyang in the men's singles, who was reversed and eliminated by the No. 5 seed and Indonesian star Ginting after winning the first game, the other players all passed the test smoothly.
On March 5, Weng Hongyang returned the ball in the game. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Aurelian Morisal).
Mixed doubles top seeds Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong eliminated the Canadian pair Lindeman and Wu Wanling with 15; Women's Doubles top seeds Chen Qingchen Jia Yifan was stubbornly resisted by Thailand's Zongkong Pan Rawinda, but finally won 18; Li Shifeng defeated Japan's Hangki Watanabe to advance to the second round of men's singles with 17; Wang Zhiyi defeated Malaysia's Wu Jin Wei in the women's singles competition with a score of 14.
The venue is still in the process of adapting, and the wind direction seems to be a little different in each field, so we want to get into the feeling of the game as soon as possible. Zheng Siwei said after the game.
On March 5, Weng Hongyang returned the ball in the game. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Aurelian Morisal).
Although this is an Olympic year, our mentality is relatively stable, and we still hope to find some problems in the recent games, so there won't be too many fluctuations in mentality. Huang Yaqiong said.
Men's singles top seed and Tokyo Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen Axelsen comfortably defeated India's Rajawat 15 on the same day. When talking about how it feels to compete at the Olympic venues, Axelsen said that although it is the same venue, the atmosphere of this competition and his mentality are definitely completely different from those of participating in the Paris Olympics, so he will not think too much about it, and just want to focus on this competition first.
The deadline for badminton qualification points for the Paris Olympics is April 28, 2024, and the Chinese team is expected to win the Olympic quota in all five events.
*: Xinhua News Agency, Guangzhou** New Flower City Editor: Wu Ruonan.