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Yonex All England Open Badminton
Championships 2012
06-11 March, the NIA, Birmingham |
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07-Feb:
GB stars face stern test as
Superseries heads for Birmingham
BRITAIN’S Olympic hopefuls face another world-class
test after the Badminton World Federation announced
the entry list for the Yonex All England Open
Badminton Championships.
Only nine home players are guaranteed a place in the
main draw at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham
from March 6-11. And that’s down to the incredibly
strong entry in all five events.
Only one player is missing in the men’s singles from
the world’s top 28 while all the top 28 are in the
main draw of the women’s singles. That strength in
depth is repeated down through the other three
events.
It adds up to just about the strongest possible
entry for this final Premier event on the OSIM BWF
World Superseries circuit before the year-long
Olympic qualifying race comes to a close at the end
of April.
Commonwealth silver medallist and five-times English
National champion Rajiv Ouseph is in the
men’s singles main draw, new national men’s doubles
champions Chris Adcock and Andy Ellis are in
the men’s doubles while National runners-up and
Swedish International winners Mariana
Agathangelou and Heather Olver are in the
women’s doubles.
World silver medallists Adcock and Scotland’s
Imogen Bankier and Commonwealth silver
medallists and recent Swedish International winners
Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork will be
in the mixed doubles.
But Scotland’s Susan Egelstaff and England’s
five-times National champion Elizabeth Cann
must try to win through from the qualifying rounds
as they continue their battle for Olympic
qualification.
Of the other England players, Carl Baxter is
only on the reserve list but Chris Langridge and
Peter Mills and National champions Jenny
Wallwork and Gabby White are in Tuesday’s
qualifying for the doubles events.
Olver will also try to qualify in mixed doubles with
Marcus Ellis, as will Scotland’s Robert
Blair and new partner Jillie Cooper.
World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei will be bidding for
a hat-trick of men’s singles titles while China’s
Lin Dan, who edged out the Malaysian in that
incredible final at the Yonex BWF World
Championships at Wembley Arena in August, will be
out to recapture a title he has won four titles and
appeared in seven finals since 2004.
China will provide the top three players in the
women’s singles, led by defending champion Wang
Shixian, and China will be out to improve on the
three titles they won last year, having lifted all
five world titles at both Paris in 2010 and London
in 2011.
All last year’s winners and runners-up have entered
as well as all Wembley’s World Championships
medallists.
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