Baddy Cool

"Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat" Malcolm Forbes 

2004. Athens. The mixed doubles pairing of Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson captured the country's imagination as they reached the Olympic final in their sport of Badminton.

They overcame some tricky matches on their way to that final and for a few days' Badminton was the sport of choice in Britain. Unfortunately, however, it wasn't to be for the Brits in the final, as they were beaten by Chinese heroes Zhang Jun and Gao Ling. 

4 years have passed and their time to shine has come again. This morning I eagerly awaited their Round of Sixteen tie, against a Chinese rookie, in young prodigy Zheng Bo, and their nemesis from Athens Gao Ling, now one of China's most celebrated female sports stars.

I'll admit I have a slight vested interest in the pair, they train in the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes, not ten minutes walk from my house, and I have met the pair on several occasions, but when the match started I was beyond passionate! The fact that the arena was packed with 10,000 screaming fans all behind the Chinese pair, who were 2nd Seeds, was sure to be a factor, mixed in with the delicious prospect of revenge of Gao Ling, in her last ever Olympics.

Though in the first game*,  it was the Brits' who looked the classier of the couples, their opponents reduced to desperate defensive play. The game finished comfortably, Britain prevailing 21-16. The Chinese Crowd had become deathly silent, as the British bench celebrated and encouraged the team to keep up their work-rate.

The second game however was not so clear-cut. Some mesmerizing placed smash shots from Robertson opened up a 11-7 lead, but the crowd got behind their team and Robertson began to flounder, his recent ankle operation and lack of training beginning to tell. As it would happen, the Chinese pair took the second game 21-16, a reverse of the first game. Emms looked to be panicking at the state of her partner, and the increasingly positive play of their opponents buoyed on by the Arena's rowdy crowd.

Their was more despair to follow. Gao Ling really showed just why she is so adored in her homeland, and partner Zheng Bo overcame the nerves that had overcame him in the previous games, the tired Robertson and desperate Emms seemed to be hitting against a brick-wall as the score hit 17-12 in the favour of the 2nd Seeds.

Then, as they say, Robertson got a second wind. The following point was an epic rally, the sort that the Briton's opponents had begun to dominate, but Zheng missed an easy smash chance and the momentum seemingly shifted. Robertson duly dispatched six straight points past the shellshocked Gao Ling, to put the score at 19-17 in the Buckinghamshire duo's favour. A minuted later, after four tense points, the final score was 21-19 to the British double act.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold, and to say the atmosphere in that arena had frozen would be an understatement.

The Olympics. Love it.

*Badminton Doubles consists of three games of twenty-one points.