World Championships silver medallists optimistic to get sufficient funds for the game in England
England’s Chris Adcock and Scotland’s Imogen Bankier delivered a stunning performance and won the silver medal in last month’s 2011 BWF World Championships in the category of Mixed Doubles. The couple hope that their success in the mega event will help in
getting sufficient funds for badminton in the country.
The performance of English shuttlers in the World Championships always remained poor for the last many years. However, Adcock and Bankier stunned everyone by displaying a remarkable performance in the Mixed Doubles event of the championship. The duo defeated
many higher ranked shuttlers in their way towards glory but failed to beat the opponents from China in the final of the event.
Nevertheless, the couple is happy with what they have achieved as they know that their performance will help in getting a positive opinion of officials and the budget for the game will be reconsidered in the next budget plan. Their wonderful performance
at the world meet has also boosted their confidence and they are ready to shine in the 2012 London Olympics, which will take place at the same Wembley Arena.
The performance of the Anglo-Scottish couple will help in getting better funding for badminton in the budget review for the game in 2013. Jens Grill, the performance director of Great Britain and Badminton England, said, "It's good... that we demonstrated
we have young players who can compete at the highest level.”
He further added, “However, I don't think of results as 'great, we've saved our funding now - (UK Sport) you have to continue to support us'. Obviously we have to demonstrate and give them some belief that this is not a one-off."
Bankier knows that they need to put more effort in their training sessions to get good results at international stage. She said, "We've had a fantastic results at the Worlds, but we now need to back up those performances - if we do that the points should
take care of themselves."
Adcock and Bankier are presently ranked at Number 16 in the Mixed Doubles world rankings. They are working really hard to get good results in the upcoming events which will help them in earning ranking points to find a good standing in the 2012 London Olympics.
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