Chinese Women’s doubles pair eyeing on the Tokyo 2020 title

With the end of the Asian Games 2018 held at Jakarta, the neighbouring country China has left an impressive impact on the badminton fans around the world, as it won three gold medals in the tournament. China bagged gold medals in the Men’s doubles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed doubles. The latest news and updates on China badminton 2018 are all about the upcoming Olympic events that will take place at Tokyo in 2020.

China is all set to lure the top medals at the much-awaited international championships. The golden girls of China are sanguine about the upcoming Tokyo 2020. Women’s doubles champions at the 2018 Asian Games, Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan thwarted the Japanese Olympic gold medallists’ Takahashi Ayaka and Matsutomo Misaki in the decider match. As they won the match, Chen was extremely overwhelmed with joy. She kissed the national flag and hugged her partner.

As quoted in CGTN Sports Scene, Yifan said, "We knew that we will face great difficulties in the final. Actually, we did think of getting through to the final. We just focus on each game. In the semi-finals, we met with the opponent we have lost to in the final of Women’s teams. But this time, I think we played much better. And in the final, we showed our strength, spirit and persistence to win the gold."

"If we just talk about the match technically and tactically, actually our opponent in the final did better than we did. They are Rio Olympic gold medallists. But on the other hand, we kept telling ourselves that we can win. The thought helped us go through the whole match."

Undoubtedly, the duo was in extreme pressure as the pair lost the final match of the Women’s team to Fukushima Yuki and Hirota Sayaka. At Asiad 2018, China lost the team event by 1-3, clinching a silver medal. On the other hand, in the Men’s and Women’s singles matches, all the Chinese players could not perform well and were ousted before they could reach to the semi-finals. The Women’s doubles match was the only chance, the country had to win a medal. In the finals, they had to face the top Japanese Pair against them.

Jia stated, "After we lost to Japan in the final of Women’s team event, we received lots of doubts and criticism from Internet. So I decided to unload all the social apps to block those bad words. And it worked for me because I focused all myself on the matches. And we played better than in the team event. I think what we have to do is to believe ourselves."

Chen told to the CGTN, "When we faced difficulties, Jia and I and our coaches tried to figure out what to do. We faced challenges and managed to deal them. We looked over the taps of our opponents several times to find their weak points. And we fought together on court."

Both the Chinese shuttlers have been playing together since 2014, from the time they were teenager girls. Both of them have won many prestigious titles including the Asiad 2018 and BWF World Championships. They have been together in every situation and encouraged each other.

Jia stated, "We are in the same age and Chen is six days elder than I am. She is quite special. Sometimes she would not talk so much and sometimes very lovely. But I was kind of extroverted. I am optimist and barely I would be affected."

Chen felt, "She (Jia) is quite optimistic and she makes us happy during training session. She is pistachios. We complement each other on and off court."

There was a time when the pair of Chen-Jia were at the top BWF ranking. Now they slid to the third position, while the rest of the top two spots are captured by Japanese Pairs. After immense pressure and countless efforts, the duo of Chen-Jia managed to defeat the top two Japanese pair in the semifinals and moved to the finals to win at the Asiad 2018.

Jia Yifan said, "For us, world rankings are not important. World rank is actually such that when you are in good form, your ranking might be higher. And if you are injured or off your shape, the ranking would be lower. But top 10 and even top 20 have their special skills that are not neglected through rankings. We are now ranked third in the world but we still beat top two pairs in the semis and finals (in Jakarta)."

Chen said she is "more realistic" over the world rankings. "I prefer winning big events titles, such as Asian Games, world championship and Olympic Games," she said.

Japan has improved its command over badminton and so at the Tokyo 2020, China has to face a tough competition, in the men's singles and Women’s doubles category.

Chen is quite optimistic for the Tokyo 2020. She said, "We are eager to participate in the Olympic Games in Tokyo,"

On the other hand, Jia is confident and cautious, as she knows the power of the Japanese badminton players.  She said, "But you know that competitive sports is crucial. We cannot foresee the future. We have to see next year if we can earn enough scores to qualify for Tokyo. Of course, this is our dream, and we will try our best to fulfil the dream. If we would compete in Tokyo we still have other challenges as we all know that Japan has an advantage on badminton especially Women’s doubles. It would be very difficult for us. And it would be a great pressure for them as they are the host and have to fight for a good result in front of home crowd."

Chen summed up before signing off, "We are in the same thought. We will focus on training and earning more scores to qualify for the Olympics. And we can compete in Tokyo. We would go step by step and try to get a good result."