Live on youTube right now: Badminton World Championship Finals

EDIT: THIS IS NOW OVER, but the matches are archived at the same place.


http://www.youtube.com/user/bwf

The channel of the Badminton World Federation shows many tournements live and today, right now, are the finals of the world championship. A good opportunity to check the sport if you are curious.

There are five finals. The first of the five, women double, is currently in play. Mixed double, women single, men double and men single will follow. Note that even if men single is the most prestigious discipline, all five events are interesting because the tactics are different. The men single final will be the expected dream final between the world N?1 Lee Chong Wei and the wild card Lin Dan (his ranking dropped because he was on a sabbatical to spend time with his family), the guy that consistently denied Chong Wei the most important titles (world championships, olympic games and All England championship). A classic struggle between the incredible movement and defensive skills of Chong Wei and the powerful all out attack of Lin Dan.

Check it out!

Four of the five finals are done, so thegrand finaleandpi?ce de r?sistanceis about to begin!

A thrilling final that ended up with more drama than wished, as Lee Chong Wei injured himself and/or brutally cramped up at the very end of the final as he was closing the narrow gap between him and Lin Dan. That might generate some post match drama too apparently as it seems the air conditioning was shut down by the time of the men's final, changing significantly the play condition. Firstly, air conditioning generate a slight drift that affects the trajectory of the shuttles and as a result plays a part in tactics, execution and judgment. Secondly... well... it's a lot more hot and humid without the air conditioning, which affects the shuttle speed and, obviously the perspiration of the athletes. A number of appreciation errors by Chong Wei (misjudging whether the shuttles were in or out) and his cramping could be caused by the fact he was not told and did not realize the air conditioning was shut down. Both can also be caused by nervousness though, and there was no doubt plenty of nerves were involved in the match!