CHINESE DOMINANCE CONFIRMED
Ji Xinpeng sealed China’s unprecedented domination
of the Olympic badminton tournament by brilliantly securing the men’s singles
title.
The 22-year-old from Hunan claimed his first major triumph to give China
four golds out of a possible five in Sydney. Only the men’s doubles, in which the Chinese failed to get any medal, eluded their otherwise unstoppable march to victory.
That gold went to Indonesia’s Tony Gunawan and Candra Wijaya, but their
compatriot Hendrawan was unable to compete with Ji in the men’s singles final.
China’s seventh seed emerged triumphant 15-4 15-13 after 45 minutes,
having mixed deft touches with sudden lightning strikes.
Few could begrudge Ji his succes. On his route to gold he defeated world number one and second seed Peter Gade of Denmark after earlier knocking out top seeded Indonesian Taufik
Hidayat. Yet he had come into the Olympics with just a victory in the Japan Open
earlier this year as his previous biggest tournament win. Having beaten Hendrawan in that event, Ji attacked his more experienced opponent confidently from the start of Saturday’s final, quickly building an 8-1 lead.
Once he had taken the first game, not even falling 9-4 and then 13-10
behind in the second could upset his play. Ji simply found another gear to win the last five points in a row and secure the gold on his first match point.
PETER WATTS
Sunday Times
