2008 WUC Badminton: Day 2
May 7th, 2008
As the second day of the championship begins we enter the more decisive and competitive matches. Competition is starting to get tougher and the major favorites start to show up. In the morning the competition started with the third and final round of groups B and C and with the first two games of the first round of the knockout phase. In group B, deciding the top place in the round robin, Thailand and Japan played an extremely close match. The Thai overpowered the Japanese players to secure the first place, with the final result of 3-2. In the other match of the group Malaysia beat Macau and finished in third place. The Indonesian squad finished in the first place of group C after defeating the team from Korea by 3-2. In the other match of the group Spain secured third place with a 4-1 victory over Canada. The host country team failed to secure a place in the quarter-finals as it was beaten by Chinese Taipei (3-0). The Portuguese side lost the mixed doubles, men and women games and decided not to play the remaining ones. In the other first round game Russia defeated the French team to secure a place in the quarter-finals. Poland, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Japan and China were automatically qualified for the quarter finals. In the 1pm games, in the draw for the attribution of 11th to 17th places, Great Britain and Switzerland will face in the next round as they defeated Canada (3-1) and Macau (3-0) respectively. In the other game of the draw the Germans defeated the Spanish squad (3-1) and will face in the next round the Malaysian team that received a bye. In the semi-finals of this draw, played at 5pm, the British side defeated the Swiss squad by 3-0 and will now battle to secure the 11th place in the team competition with the Malaysians that defeated the Germans by 3-1. In the main draw, the quarter-finals were played in the afternoon, in a draw controlled by the Asian countries. In the match between the only two European countries still in competition, the Polish side overcame a very tough Russian challenge. The Russians started better with a win in the mixed doubles, but the Polish squad came back to win the individual games and the men’s doubles. In the semi-final Poland will meet Thailand that dominated their quarter-final against Indonesia. The Thai won the match 3-0 to secure a place in the top-four. The other semi-final will be played between China and Korea. The Chinese defeated the Japanese by 3-1 in a high quality match. Kazushi Yamada gave the Japanese their only victory in the match in the men singles. The Korean squad defeated in the other quarter final match the team from the Chinese Taipei (3-1) to secure their place in the semi-final. Tomorrow the team competition will end with the first medal ceremony taking place. The Asians squads are dominating the draw and showing their great dominance in the sport. The semi-finals and the 11th place awarding game starts at 10am and the final will take place at 5pm.
Click on the link below to get the latest news and results from this Championship
http://www.badminton08.uminho.pt/default.aspx
