Legends of the arena likely to bid farewell after London Olympics – Badminton Feature
The London Olympics will see many legends gracing the court with their presence for the last time as a complete lot is likely to bid farewell to the arena after the mega event.
The list includes Peter Hoeg Gade of Denmark, the Indonesian maestro Taufik Hidayat, Lee Hyun Il from Korea and the veteran Malaysian Hafiz Hashim while the badminton aces Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan have also shown their intentions to stop in near future.
The World Number four Peter Hoeg Gade was the first one to announce his intentions to get retire after the London Olympics. The 35-year-old Dane has been tagged as one of the badminton greats of all time who also holds the record of having the longest career
as a singles player.
Throughout his career, the Danish legend has bagged many crowns in prestigious events across the globe but unfortunately he has not won the Olympic Champion title yet.
Interestingly, in all three previous Olympics he lost to those who eventually became the winners. But this time he intends to use his experience and brilliance to have a good last run in the Olympics.
The Dane has plans of starting his coaching career after bidding farewell to the arena like the former World and Olympic Champion Taufik Hidayat from Indonesia who is also expected to call it a day after the London Olympics.
The badminton maestro Taufik has already launched his coaching institute "Taufik Hidayat’s Arena" where he will train the Indonesian youngsters for free. It seems that he has realised that this is high time for Indonesia to introduce young legs at the international
level along with nurturing the young talent to ensure their presence in global arena.
Taufik, who is turning 31 in August, has been respected as one of the most dangerous players who can beat anyone at any moment. The World Number 12 Taufik Hidayat is expecting to end his career at high in London Olympics 2012.
The Korean singles ace Lee Hyun Il, currently ranked seven in world rankings, is next on the list of players saying good bye to the court. The Men’s singles maestro raised his country’s flag in almost every prominent badminton event throughout his career
which is now a story of more than decade.
He once has announced retirement in 2008 also but he made a comeback in 2010 Thomas Cup as Korea did not have any proper replacement for him.
The London event will be his third appearance in the Olympics and 31-year-old shuttler is determined to make it memorable event by escorting his country to glory.
The veteran Malaysian shuttler Hafiz Hashim has also come to age where all the talents start falling down gradually.
The 29-year-old Hafiz has come under fire for his trail of failures in recent events and his position has been questioned by his critics especially after the All England Open 2012 where he could not even make into the main round.
The former All England and CommonWealth Games Champion is in quest for his past glory and it is indeed a tough task for him in increasing speed of modern game.
His critics believe that the second top ranked Malaysian shuttler, after Lee Chong Wei, should gracefully quit the game as his ranking is permanently decreasing and there have been no signs of improvement in recent past.
Meanwhile, the young players like Daren Liew, Chong Wei Feng and Zulfadli Zulkiffli are catching up with great pace and showing some great potential to become true successors of badminton maestro Lee Chong Wei who is also at verge of retirement.
The top two shuttlers of the world and undoubtedly the greats of all time, Lin Dan and Chong Wei may also make the London Olympics a parting event as they have shown their intentions in this regard.
They both are set to give a strong goodbye knock at the prestigious event of Olympics where they are expected to face each other in the title match.
This sad farewell of a complete lot of legends who has graced the arena for more than a decade will really create a huge gap which who knows may take a decade to be filled by their successors. This might make harder for the younger lot to attract the spectators
in absence of these badminton giants.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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