If the only podium she steps onto this year is at the Asian Games in September, Saina Nehwal would have made 2014 worth the while.
For the Games at Incheon, Korea, will have neither the fluff of July’s Commonwealth Games’ playing field nor the flab of the World Championships in August, amongst its competitors. If you can look past the stature, and focus singularly on the sheer difficulty level of the challenge, this year’s Asiad — the brutally honest would opine — can count as greater than the London Olympics, even.
Shixian Wang’s title victory over fellow Chinese Xuerui Li at the All-England was significant, simply because Shixian has long been considered the weakest amongst China’s current lot. A former World Champion and Asiad gold medallist, Shixian’s game looks further fortified with the much-needed aggression that was missing from her arsenal. She never lacked in silken wristwork nor the stamina to last wearying battles.
But her commanding performance in the final against the Olympic champ, after accounting for the usual bully of the Chinese team, Yihan Wang, means China’s new-generation, delicately called Little Flowers, are no longer in the shadow of past champions.
A gold and silver at the London Olympics in 2012, and a mere silver at the World Championships last year, might not have been enough for Chinese women’s singles head coach Zhang Ning, the 2008 Olympic champ, to keep her job. A world title lost in front of the home crowd last year as Thai Ratchanok Inthanon snatched it from Xuerui meant the winter of 2013 was spent in swift course correction as recently-retired men’s singles player – and 2010 world champ – Chen Jin was put in charge of the girls as women’s coach. The man with a beastly game and temperament, sure has helped sharpen the claws, and the Indians, Koreans and Thais are expected to take note, and raise their own levels.
Lat year was sinisterly silent for the Chinese when they lost the world crown. At the Asiad, they’ll line up their best, and Asia’s best of the rest should be prepared to snap at their heels and closely follow.
Shivani is an assistant editor based in Mumbai
shivani.naik@expressindia.com
