On December 19, 2021, in the men's singles final of the World Championships in Huelva, Spain, as Luo Jianyou's return ball fell steadily into the opponent's area, he won the first badminton world championship gold medal in Singapore's history with a black to the bottom.
For a moment, Luo Jianyou was on fire, and the world's badminton shots were aimed at this young man.
From obscurity to overnight fame, Luo Jianyou used the time of a Thai Masters tournament at the beginning of 2019; from obscurity to peaking a blockbuster, Luo Jianyou spent a week in Spain to reproduce a perfect counterattack script. Every time the east wind arrived, he could always take advantage of the momentum and quickly be remembered by Yu Tan with just a few breakthroughs.
Chapter Three: The Olympics Turned Into a Turning Point
Luo Jianyou, who won the championship in Thailand, is still outside the 100th place in the world rankings, and before that, he was not even qualified for the World Championships and did not have enough points to participate in high-level competitions. After the outbreak, because he could not be named in the All England Newspaper, he returned to Singapore for closed training after participating in the 2020 Spanish Masters, and did not participate in other competitions for a year.
The entrance flag bearer olympics cried bitterly
Entering 2021, he encountered a round trip in both thailand races in the opening year. Back in Singapore, Luo Jianyou began to concentrate on preparing for the Olympic Games, in his words: "Never have you been preparing for a competition for such a long time, so seriously, and so comprehensively." ”
Coming to the Tokyo time zone, Luo Jianyou became one of the few delegation flag bearers in the badminton industry, and at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, he walked at the forefront of the Singapore delegation, holding high the national flag and letting the world see him. In the group stage, he fought fiercely for 68 minutes and then lost to Indonesia's Jonathan by 3 points in the decider, and his first Olympic journey stopped in the group stage.
Luo Jianyou has never been a person who will cry when he loses, but on the stage of the Olympic Games, the defeat after going all out actually made him cry bitterly: "I feel that I have been preparing for a long time and preparing well." The east wind came, but it blew away. ”
After the Olympic Games, Luo Jianyou had a new understanding of himself, the men's singles pattern of the badmintonians, and the competition. After that, he packed his bags alone and went to the oil power of the Middle East to participate in a cultivation.
The strength of the sparring "boy band" soared
Luo Jianyou transformed into the world-famous "Arcelorn Preparation Team". In fact, as early as before the epidemic, Arcelor had such an idea and threw an olive branch to Luo Jianyou. It was December 31, 2019, and Acetron approached Luo Jianyou, expressed his desire to set up a training base in Dubai, and officially invited Luo Jianyou to join.
Arcelor originally planned to implement the plan after the Tokyo Olympics, but with the postponement of the Games, the plan was finally not implemented until August 2021. The difference is that at this time, Arcelor is already an Olympic champion.
In Dubai, Arcelor and five men's singles players from other countries and regions form a training squad and live together in a hotel, training according to the coach's plan, but each player also retains his own initiative.
The first training was only carried out for one month, I did not expect that this "small stove" turned out to be very effective, Luo Jianyou, Lakshya, Yang Can and other members have made rapid progress in the competition at the end of the year, which made the world look curiously at Acelon's Dubai training camp.
In Luo Jianyou's view, the "secret" in everyone's eyes comes from Acelon himself. "Probably everyone feels the change in Arcelor's identity, everyone cherishes the opportunity to train with the Olympic champion, eager to keep up with him in training, eager to beat him in actual combat, so unconsciously he was promoted."
Chapter Four: The Dark Horse Rises to the Top with Injuries
Luo Jianyou trained in Dubai for only 29 days before throwing himself into the intensive competition in the second half of the year, because there was no team competition task, he first participated in the Dutch Open, defeated Lakshya in the final to win the championship, then lost to Arcelor in the first round of the Danish Open, lost to Lakshya in the French Open Round of 16, defeated Li Zijia in the final of the Hailu Open to win the championship, lost to Zhou Tiancheng in the final of the Indonesian Masters, and lost to Arcelor in the final of the Indonesian Open.
The six races were quite fulfilling, and Luo Jianyou experienced the bitterness of a round of travel and also tasted the sweetness of winning the Super 500 Championship for the first time. Even he was thinking about a question: Am I really up?
After that, he returned to Singapore for three days before departing for Spain. You may not quite believe that 2019 in Basel, Switzerland, was Luo Jianyou's first time to participate in the World Championships, in other words, he won the championship at the second World Championship.
Sign the transport away back self-deprecating comfort
I remember everyone's voice on the day of the world championship draw, half of them said that Luo Jianyou was "too lucky", and met Arcelor in the first round. After the draw came out, Luo Jianyou and Acesaron, who were both in the division at the time, quickly saw each other, and both of them were very personable and said to each other:
"Did you see the lottery?"
"Well, it's you."
"Well, get ready."
"Absolutely! Train tomorrow? ”
"Arrived on time!"
During the draw, coach He Kevin was next to Luo Jianyou, and he could only pretend to be calm and forced him to say: "It's okay." At first, Luo Jianyou really felt that it was okay, but when he returned to Singapore, everyone saw him saying the same thing: "Oh, Jianyou, your luck is not good!" As the saying goes, three people become tigers, and after listening to the same words too much, Luo Jianyou himself began to waver, thinking: Flying so far to play a game, playing a game will go home, it is too pitiful.
However, he also thought of a sentence he said in an interview a long time ago: "If I can be upset, I hope it is in the first game, because the first game has the best chance, when the opponent is not adapting to the game." 」 ”
Destiny Battle Unexpectedly bad foot
In a word!
In the first round of the World Championships, Luo Jianyou, who lost one set first, won two consecutive sets 21-9 and 21-6, eliminating Arcelor and creating the biggest upset in the entire World Championship. After winning, Luo Jianyou's mood was like this: Wow! So much fun! No, can't be happy, can't be happy, my nature is to be happy and relax.
After passing two more levels in a row and playing his opponent in single digits, Luo Jianyou reached the quarter-finals, a step ahead of the round of 16 at the Basel World Championships. In the 8-in-4 level, which is about whether he can stand on the podium, Luo Jianyou, who does not dare to think too much, suddenly has an idea: All or Nothing - either get everything or nothing.
The quarter-final against Planoy became the most stressful game for Luo Jianyou, probably because he was too nervous, and he was weak in the final stage of the second set. When his ankle hurt, his feeling was: "I didn't feel very sore in my foot, I was in pain!" They have all reached this point and are even on their feet. I told myself I couldn't stop, and if I stopped, it was easy to never run again. ”
2-0, Luo Jianyou won the game as if he was not injured, locking in a medal. Immediately after leaving the game, he applied ice to his already puffy right foot. The good news was that the next day he was scheduled for the final of the day.
In case the opponent refuses the wheelchair
The next morning, Luo Jianyou tried to train, still feeling very sore in his ankles, until the evening game waiting and entering. But the power of faith is enormous, Luo Jianyou told himself: Pain is pain, if you want to break, break it. Once again desperately, he beat Denmark's Antonsen 2-0 and took another step forward.
After winning the semi-finals, Luo Jianyou actually thought that his ankle was already good. Since it was the last race, the last shuttle was waiting for him, and he jumped on the bus before he even had time to do relaxation stretching and ice packing after the interview. In just half an hour on the return trip, Luo Jianyou gradually felt pain, severe pain, and numbness in his right foot, until after getting out of the car, he was so painful that he couldn't walk at all, sitting on a chair on the side of the road, unable to move for half an hour.
At the time, he wanted to jump back on one foot, but the coach was adamantly opposed because it could add to the serious injury. However, when the coach proposed to push the wheelchair, it was opposed by Luo Jianyou, on the grounds that it was easy to be seen by the opponents in the final and enhance the confidence of the opponents. Under the balance, the coach still felt safe first and pushed the wheelchair. By the time they got to the lobby, they were desperate to see that several Indian players had seen them pushing wheelchairs.
"It was so desperate! It's true. All I could do was shout at the coach: 'Let's go!' Push fast! Hurry up! ’”
If Luo Jianyou does not say it, perhaps such a story will not be known, because the audience really has difficulty connecting his performance on the field to the injury behind it. 21-15, 22-20, Luo Jianyou made history by beating "Indians who know their secrets" Srikans in the final.
The "Twelve Truths" borrow the East Wind
This battle is the same as the victory at the Thai Masters that year: I thought I wanted a round of luck, a winning streak, and a black end. The only difference is that Luo Jianyou played the last three games with an injury, but he played a state of courage that no one could judge his injury - playing crazy!
It's hard to describe, he said: "It's probably the best game ever felt, that is, picking up the ball and knowing that the strength is just right, and it can feel just inside the boundary." The whole person is very optimistic, no matter the tailwind and headwind, you can choose, I can control the feeling. ”
On the night of the championship, Luo Jianyou did not sleep all night, and sudden information and interviews poured into this extraordinary night. By the time he finished his interview, he was two hours away from leaving for the airport, and he had confiscated his luggage.
Arriving in Singapore the next day, Changi Airport welcomed the return of the 24-year-old world champion with a "water cannon salute". This is the first time Mr. Luo has enjoyed this courtesy, and he may not yet fully understand the fact that he is already a national treasure of Singapore.
Luo Jianyou likes to use "the east wind is coming" to describe those games that perform well. Three years ago in Thailand, he rode on the shareholder wind to let the world know him; three years later, the east wind that belonged to him blew again, and he discarded the impact of injury and firmly grasped the initiative of fate. Of course, he also missed the moment of the East Wind, such as the Tokyo Olympics, where he lost on a stage where he was consciously well prepared.
He carefully summed up his performance when he grasped the east wind in 12 words: physical strength, patience, and attack, and fast. However, Luo Jianyou never used "confidence" to describe himself, because he knew his level, and he did not dare to have the confidence of "I have the strength to beat you".
Perhaps many people will discuss: Why can Luo Jianyou counterattack with a dark horse? Is it because of the improvement of absolute strength, the desperate super level of play, the absence of famous players, or the coincidence? But who can say? Or rather, who has the final say? Luo Jianyou himself could not figure out this fantastic tour of Huelva for the time being.
However, there is one fact in front of us, and there is no denying it: in the world of feathers, the new king of the men's singles field is crowned, and the new king of the lion city above the equator has borrowed his east wind to become a hegemon.
This article is from the February 2022 issue