With the end of this year's Tangyou Cup, this year's international top badminton competition has come to an end.
In the past three weeks, the national team championships dominated by young players have competed in the Sudirman Cup, Thomas Cup and Uber Cup, and 11 new world champions have been born during this period, setting a record for the highest number of national feathers in the history.
Does the scramble for young world champions herald the fact that The National Feather is not far from the third dynasty in history?
01 Add 11 world champions throughout the year to break the "beard record" for 42 years
The first world championships of Chinese badminton were born in 1978, when Yu Yaodong, Zhang Ailing, Hou Jiachang and Li Fang stepped on the podium of the first World Championships hosted by the former BWF. By the start of this year's Sudirman Cup, 150 world champions had emerged.
During this period, the national feather often emerged a number of world champions in a season, such as: in 1979, through the good performance in the former BWF World Championships and World Cup, a net increase of 10 world championships.
In 1986, Kuniyu also produced 10 world champions at the Tangyou Cup held that year.
In 2004, Kuniyu once again staged a net increase of 10 world champions in the Tangyou Cup.
In addition, in the 1990 and 1995 seasons, the national team added nine world champions each.
In 1997 and 2006, there were 8 world champions in both seasons...
It is not difficult to see that the overall strength of the national feathers is very good at creating world champions, especially in the glory days of repeatedly in the three major cups in succession to give birth to new champions.
Of course, it is difficult to surpass history, and in the 41 years between 1980 and 2020, Kuniwa will produce multiple world champions almost every year, but it has never exceeded the all-time record of 10 world champions created in 1979.
The national women's team won the Uber Cup for the 15th time
Happily, the 42-year-old "beard record" was finally broken in the early hours of last Sunday morning.
At that time, the Chinese women's team defeated the last champion Japan 3-1, regained the championship trophy lost three years ago, and re-entered the Uber Cup championship podium, and Wang Zhiyi, Han Yue, Liu Xuanxuan and Xia Yuting became the world champions.
On the 3rd of this month, Guoyu successfully defended the Sudirman Cup, when seven world champions were born, including He Bingjiao, Lu Guangzu, He Jiting, Tan Qiang, Li Wenmei, Zheng Yu and Feng Yanzhe.
In just two weeks, Kuniwa was overjoyed to add 11 world champions, surpassing the single-year record set in 1979.
02 Throwing a soup cup is related to the untidy lineup
In May 2005, the Sudirman Cup held in Beijing won back the championship trophy lost in 2003, and in 2004, the Double kai in the Tangyou Cup, when Guoyu completed the hegemony of winning three major cups that had never been seen in the world badminton world before.
In the 9 years from 2005 to 2013, except for the Chinese women's team that regrettably lost one Uber Cup in 2010, the other seven seasons of the three major cups were invariably monopolized by the national feather.
In the 2014 Tang Cup, because Lin Dan could only play the third singles in the world ranking, coupled with Chen Long and Du Pengyu's abnormal play, and the overall strength of the men's doubles declined, the Chinese men's team unexpectedly lost to japan 0:3 in the semi-finals, failing to achieve the great feat of the Tang Cup's six consecutive championships.
In the following years, the overall decline of the national feathers due to the lack of green and yellow: in 2016, the Chinese male feathers once again missed the soup cup.
In 2017, the Sudirman Cup national feather failed to achieve seven consecutive championships, and in 2018, the national feathers won back the soup cup but lost the You cup... In the past seven years, no representative team has been able to replicate the feat of Guoyu winning three cups alone.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Kuniwa performed well, with all 5 individual events reaching the final and winning 2 gold and 4 silver results, which shows that Kuniwa has entered a strong rebound period.
After the end of the East Olympic Games, the participating national players participated in the National Games non-stop, and two major events at home and abroad fought continuously, which made the physical fitness of the national players encounter great challenges.
In this context, The first men's singles Chen Long, the first men's doubles Li Junhui / Liu Yuchen, and the World Championship mixed doubles champion and Olympic mixed doubles runner-up Zheng Siwei / Huang Qiongya did not participate in this Year's Su Cup and Tang You Cup, resulting in significant damage to the overall strength of the National Yu Su Cup and Tang Cup.
In the case of almost no favor from the outside world, the national feathers who marched in a mourning posture successfully defended the Sudirman Cup, regained the You Cup, and the Thomas Cup reached the final.
Although it failed to repeat the good play of winning three cups that year, the result of 2 gold and 1 silver is the best masterpiece of any national team in the three major cups in the past 8 seasons.
Looking back on the past, Guoyu could only complete the miracle of winning three cups alone during the strongest dynasty period in history with superstars such as Lin Dan, Cai Yun, Fu Haifeng, Zhang Ning, and Gao Kun.
Guo Yu still gained 2 gold and 1 silver this time in the absence of absolute main forces such as Chen Long, Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen, Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong, which is enough to see how dazzling this report card is. Of course, even if the Chen Dragons marched west with the team this time, there was no guarantee that Guoyu would win three cups, but the strength and enterprising spirit shown by Guoyu on all fronts was gratifying.
03 The rising star of the national featherweight It remains to be seen whether it can create hegemony again
This year's Sudirman Cup and Uber Cup have suddenly emerged 11 world champions, which is really gratifying.
A wave of new world champions has given The National Feathers stronger vitality, so a topic has surfaced: Can this heroic team create a new dynasty in a short period of time?
Historically, There have been two dynasties, one in the mid-1980s and early 1990s and once from 2004 to 2012.
Coincidentally, both dynasties have produced many world champions in some years, such as 10 world champions in 1986 and 2004, and many world champions in 1990 and 2006.
In addition, in the mid-1990s, the national feathers stopped falling and rebounded, and when they won the Sudirman Cup for the first time in 1995, they suddenly produced nine world champions, and in 1997, they took the opportunity of winning the Su Cup to add 8 new world champions.
Compared with the previous three periods, the current Kuniwa is more like the climbing period in the mid-90s, and in layman's terms, Kuniyu is still quite far from the Third Dynasty.
He Jiting and Zhou Haodong
Reason 1: Of the 11 new world champions, only He Jiting appeared in the final of the Su Cup; in the final of the Uber Cup, only He Bingjiao and Li Wenmei played.
This shows that the gold content of the 11 new world champions is not very sufficient. Of course, Shi Yuqi, Chen Yufei, Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, who are currently the main players in singles and doubles, are all in the year of playing, and the age structure of Guoyu is reasonable, showing a thriving and gratifying scene.
Reason two: there is a lack of real trump cards in the team.
The two major dynasties in the history of Guoyu have a number of trump cards, such as: the men's singles "Three Musketeers" in the First Dynasty period, Li Lingwei, Han Aiping, Lin Ying, Wu Dixi, Guan Weizhen and so on.
During the Second Dynasty, Lin Dan, Zhang Ning, Cai Yun, Fu Haifeng, Gao Kun, Yu Yang, Zhang Jun, etc.
Compared with the peak time of the national feather, the current national team has 4 Olympic champions and a number of world champions, but in addition to the obvious advantage of mixed doubles, other individuals have not yet been called ace level of super-first-class players.
Shi Yuqi, Chen Yufei, Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen, Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan are certainly strong, but the current strength and achievements are obviously inferior compared with their predecessors.
Having said that, the emergence of 11 world champions in one season is undoubtedly an inspiring event.
Observing the three major battlefields of Su Cup and Tang You Cup, He Jiting, He Bingjiao, and Li Wenmei won points in key games, and Lu Guangzu, Tan Qiang, Zheng Yu, and Feng Yanzhe also experienced the storm of winning the championship, which was of great benefit to their further growth in the future.
Even rookies such as Li Shifeng, who was not crowned world champion, showed their talents and found gaps in the journey of impacting the Soup Cup, and for them, these battles are a great asset.
Looking back on that year, the dynasty was infinitely better. Looking to the future, it will take time to reach the top. When Guoyu will create the glory of the Third Dynasty, let us look forward to it together!
(Wang Quanli)