The final stage of the badminton competition of the 14th Sports Games of the People's Republic of China officially kicked off yesterday, with the men's and women's team competition taking the lead. On the first day of competition, national team members appeared one after another and fought hard to score points for their respective local teams. However, for the 13 main players who competed in the Tokyo Olympics, they have not yet reached their best condition in the National Games competition due to the 21 days of quarantine after returning home.
The National Games badminton competition is divided into two stages: qualifying and finals. The qualifying competition was held in Zhengzhou, Henan at the end of April this year, and the final stage was held in Xi'an, Shaanxi, the main venue of this National Games. The final stage is divided into team competition and individual competition. The team competition will be held from September 5th to 11th, and the individual competition will be held from September 12th to 17th. Seven gold medals will be decided at the Yuanwanggu Gymnasium of Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology.
On the first day, intensive competitions were held in the morning, afternoon and evening. In the morning, there were the men's team and women's team play-offs. The winners of the two games qualified for the last twelve teams in the team competition. Among them, the Hong Kong men's team relied on veteran Huang Yongqi to score points in the third single and defeated the Shandong men's team 3-2; Olympic silver medalist Chen Qingchen took charge of the Guangdong women's team. Under her leadership, the Guangdong women's team won 3-0 Defeated the Hong Kong women's team.
In the afternoon and evening, the men's and women's team group matches were held, and the national players made their appearances one after another. In terms of men's team, the Zhejiang men's team led by Wang Yilu and Zheng Siwei defeated the Tianjin men's team 3-1; The Jiangsu men's team led by Shi Yuqi also defeated the Anhui men's team 3-1; participated in the four National Games. Hui's Chen Long sealed the victory for the Fujian men's team and helped the team defeat the Hong Kong men's team 3-0; Li Junhui 's Liaoning men's team defeated the Jiangxi men's team 3-1; the Guangdong men's team defeated Hunan 3-1 Men's team; Sichuan men's team narrowly defeated Shanghai men's team 3-2.
As for the women's team, Olympic champion Chen Yufei 's Zhejiang women's team narrowly defeated the Beijing women's team 3-2; another Olympic champion Huang Dongping led the Fujian women's team to defeat the Sichuan women's team 3-0; Hunan women's team and Guangdong In last night's game, the women's team fought fiercely to the deciding game of the third singles. The game lasted until 11:58 that night. In the end, Hunan's Wei Yaxin won the third singles, helping the team win 3-2; the Hubei women's team won 3-2. Defeated the Guangxi Women's Team 0; the Jiangsu Women's Team defeated the Shanghai Women's Team 3-0; the Jiangxi Women's Team defeated the Liaoning Women's Team 3-2.
It is worth mentioning that this is the first official game that players have participated in since the epidemic that allows spectators to purchase tickets. The national players who have gradually become familiar with the absence of spectators say they are very satisfied. Shi Yuqi served as the second singles player of Jiangsu team and defeated Anhui young player Dong Tianyao 2-0. After the game, Shi Yuqi slapped his face with his hands in front of the audience for the first time in a long time to thank him.
During Zheng Siwei's competition, several children in the audience kept shouting "Come on Zheng Siwei", which caused Zheng Siwei to turn around frequently to lock his position. After the game, Zheng Siwei said that he had almost adapted to the game without spectators, and now he has to adapt to the rhythm of spectators again. "However, as athletes, the stadium is our stage, and we still long for a stage with cheers." Zheng Siwei said.
After returning from the Tokyo Olympics, the main players of Guoyu experienced 21 days of fully closed isolation. They came to Xi'an only 10 days after the end of the isolation. The lack of training caused them to generally feel "a little bit overwhelmed". Although the famous player Chen Long defeated Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk-yiu 2-0, he said after the game that he was not even half recovered. He said: "For an older athlete like me, the impact of an isolation is still very big. After the isolation, I immediately returned to Fuzhou to train, but the weather in Fuzhou was very hot and humid. At the beginning, It’s really difficult to recover in a few days. However, this is the reality and I still have to face it positively. This should be my last National Games. I hope I can perform at my best.”
Huang Dongping, the Olympic champion of the Fujian team, also felt the same. She said that during the few days when she resumed training after isolation, she felt very strenuous every day. In the end, she forced herself to "train hard for three days before I could get over it."
