McBookie.com spokesman Paul Petrie said: “It is not a question of if but when Murray wins his first Grand Slam after this performance.

“He is an unbackable 1-7 to win a Grand Slam in his career and that may just come at this year’s US Open. In fact Murray is ahead of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in our US Open betting and that shows the progress he’s made this season.”

US Open: 85-40 Djokovic, 3-1 Murray, 4-1 Federer, 9-2 Nadal, 10-1 bar.

Murray’s chances of picking up his first Wimbledon title next year have consequently been cut to 9-2 from 11-2 with Ladbrokes.

Michael Owen also finds a mention, who has won accolades for Liverpool FC, England and more recently Manchester United. Alan Shearer is an outstanding player whose games for Newcastle United and England were simply exemplary, similarly the great Kevin Keegan. Ironically, both these men went on to also coach Newcastle United. Gary Lineker was also one of the stars of the English team with a record 10 goals in a FIFA World Cup Finals. The lone Scott who finds a mention is the legendary Liverpool striker Kenny Dalgish. Northern Ireland produced a gem by the name of George Best, another brilliant footballer that played at Old Trafford.

Enjoy amazing champions league odds for all your favorite football action !

National Teams of UK football

England is represented in association football by the England national football team and it is controlled by the Football Association which is the primary governing body for football in all of England. Along with Scotland, England shares the distinction of being one of the oldest football playing nations in the world. The first ever international football match in the world was played between Scotland and England in 1872. Fabio Capello is the current head coach of the English side. The home ground of the English side is the Wembley Stadium in London.

There have only been eight nations in the world which hold the distinction of being the winner of the FIFA World Cup and England is one of those elite eight. They managed to win the finals against West Germany in the 1966 when they were the host to the game. They managed to beat West Germany 4-2. However their football scores have not been as impressive during the world cups since with their best performance being a fourth place finish in the 1990 World Cup. Before the termination of the competition in 1984, the English side were the most successful of the Home Nations in the British Home Championship.

TourneyTools

After years of planning and months of labor and preparation, California Badminton Academy has finally opened to the public for badminton and table tennis. CBA is the latest of a explosion of private badminton club that was sprung out in the San Francisco Bay Area.

With a area of over 35,000 sq ft and hosting 18 badminton courts, it is also the largest in the area. CBA is the brainchild of sole owner Rose Lei. Rose was part of the Chinese National Team back in the late 60 and early 70s. She trained and participated alongside many legendary player like Hou Jia Chang and Tang Xinfu.

Rose has the vision of a badminton club that brings badminton players together, fulfilling the club motto of "Strong Mind, Strong Body, Strong Skills, Strong Community." With the help of her family and many friends, she has fulfilled her dream and vision today. I can see the joy in her eyes while i was congratulating her. Her baby was born today.

During the opening ceremony, CBA invited many government officials and badminton personalities including the planning commission members, the warehouse landlord, her team of coaches Radu and Yee, as well as well known US badminton coaches like Andy Gouw and Dick Ng. However, the guest of honor for the ceremony is the legendary Hou Jia Chang. Very few people in the badminton community have not heard of Hou Jia Chang, but yet, very few has actually met him.

Hou was part of the Chinese team back in the 70s and after that, he retired and stayed in the national team as coach. His students includes other more recent legend such as Yang Yang, Han Jian, Zhao Jinhua and Xiong Guo Bao. He retired in 1993 and later moved to the US and now resides in Mississippi.

I talked to Hou briefly and found that he is a very humbled and soft spoken man. He was never boastful despite his extraordinary history and achievement in the sport of badminton. He is passionate about badminton after all these years. In the next few days, he will be conducting clinics for local badminton players in order to meet badminton players young and old.

I played a few rounds of badminton after the ceremony and managed to catch Hou conducting this evening’s clinic. At the age of 67, he no longer actively play badminton. His body simply cannot keep up anymore. However, he was very animated during the coaching session. Full of expressions and full of energy. Twisting and jumping and gesturing and posturing to show the young students the way to play badminton. It was as if a boxer stepping into the ring, stepping into the badminton court turned on his passion and energy.

To think that back 20 yrs ago, the same Hou Jia Chang who probably used the same posture and gesture to train players like Yang Yang and Zhao Jinhua in the China national team, it was quite a sight and something to ponder about.

It was a truly humbling day today to have met the legend. For a young badminton fanatic like myself who was still in diapers when Hou conquered the world, this is a lifetime opportunity.

I arrived at CBA at 2pm and I was there for a full 6 hours. I left feeling very happy for Rose to have fulfilled her dream, and I left feeling happy to have met a badminton legend. I wish Rose and CBA the best of luck in their journey and we look forward to see the next generation of professional players coming out of CBA soon.












]]> http://www.badmintoncolombia.com/california-badminton-academy-grand-opening-report/feed/ 1 http://www.badmintoncolombia.com/barisan-nasional%e2%80%99s-silver-medal-letter-to-the-malaysiakini-editor/ http://www.badmintoncolombia.com/barisan-nasional%e2%80%99s-silver-medal-letter-to-the-malaysiakini-editor/#comments Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:41:51 +0000 Admin http://badmintoncolombia.com/?p=67 The following article has also been sent to Malaysiakini as a letter to the editor.

As a Malaysian, I avidly followed the path of our shuttler Lee Chong Wei in the ongoing 2008 Beijing , making sure that I him whenever I possible could. I personally cheered in delight and began celebrating with my housemates when Chong Wei beat Korean shuttler Hyun Il in the semifinals and assured Malaysia of a medal for the first time in 12 years. I had never felt prouder in my life when the Malaysian flag was raised in the presentation ceremony as I wiped tears of pride and joy. But my tears of pride and joy quickly turned into feelings of extreme anger, disappointment, and disgust when I not only saw Chong Wei, but Malaysia’s medal paraded and flashed around a Barisan Nasional function in an election campaign, manipulated and exploited for votes. This ultimately begs the question: Who does the medal belong to? Malaysia… or Barisan Nasional?

For those who do not know which function I am referring to, I direct you to Malaysiakini’s video entitled ‘Arif Eyes a Win’. Here we see a Malaysian sportsman campaigning for Barisan Nasional as he not only attends the function in support of a candidate, but an exhibition match with him in public. However, this is hardly a new occurrence. In badminton alone, we have seen Malaysian shuttlers Tan Boon Heong and Koo Kien Keat campaign in previous by-elections last year, exploiting their fame when they won the All title, while Chong Wei himself went to campaign in Gopeng in the March General Elections.

Malaysian sportspeople should serve Malaysia first and foremost, and should only focus on serving their country in the arena to bring glory to their nation. It is the rakyat who pays and supports them in their training and development as a player. Hence, their first and only duty, should be to Malaysia. But to Chong Wei I ask this question: Is your first and only duty, to Malaysia, or to Barisan Nasional? This… is the RM300,000 question. Sportspeople should not misuse their fame which they acquired through the sponsorship and support of the rakyat for political reasons. Their duty is to the country, not Barisan Nasional! On the other hand, I am absolutely disgusted by how Barisan Nasional exploited the fame of Malaysia’s sportspeople for their own, selfish political reasons. Do you know no shame?

While the use of Chong Wei for political campaign is in itself a big misuse of the government’s discretion and power, this is not what incensed me the most. What infuriated me the most was when the medal, Malaysia’s medal, was parade and flashed around in a Barisan Nasional function, blatantly politicizing the medal. Of course Chong Wei owns this medal, but this medal also rightfully belongs to every single Malaysian, and it would be fair to say that every single Malaysian owns a part of this medal. But instead, that very that brought tears of joy and pride to my eyes, gets taken to a political ceremony, gets paraded and flashed around as political fodder for Barisan Nasional, and for that, I feel ashamed, disgusted, and sadness. Ashamed because what us, united all Malaysians no matter what creed, religion or color, no matter what political affiliations we had, as we stood together cheering our athlete on, hoping for him, praying for him, is snatched from us and instead, manipulated for the selfish political means of a single political party. What used to be my pure and uninhibited pride and joy is now tainted with the filth of politicking and campaigning, robbing me of any prior pride or joy that I previously felt so strongly after our triumph. Disgusted, because of the extent of which the Barisan Nasional camp is willing to go to win an election. To steal the pride of our nation, manipulating and selling it for votes, that is the biggest crime here. Finally, sadness because of the state my beloved country is in. Sadness, because the medal that once belonged to Malaysia, or so I foolishly thought when the Malaysian flag was hoisted, now belongs to Barisan Nasional. Sadness, because I can no longer feel proud of the medal, because it no longer belongs to me, or my country. Sadness, because I have to tell my overseas friends that Malaysia came back from Beijing empty handed. Sadness, because the line separating politics and sports is now so blurred, that it becomes OK for sporting heroes and sporting to be utilized, to be used, to be manipulated for the selfish political gain of a single political party. For that, I feel the upmost sorrow and grief.

This years Thomas Cup to me will be one of the most exciting Thomas Cup for Malaysians. Few reason to this..

1. We’re playing on home soil.. The home crowd will give M’sia an edge over the rest due to the hardcore fans who will be cheering for their home nation. Because of this, the last time we won the Thomas Cup in 1992 was due to our home crowd support..

2. We’ve got a strong team overall..  one of the strongest M’sian team since 1992. We have on paper, World No. 1 in Singles thru Chong Wei and World No.1 in doubles thru Tan Boon Heong and KKK.. 2 points look solid for us and all we need is for Choon Han or our second doubles to deliver.

MALAYSIA: Lee Chong Wei, Wong Choong Hann, Muhd Hafiz Hashim, Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong, Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif/Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari.

3. Its been 18 years since we have won the cup.. We’re Hungryyyy to bring the Thomas Cup back!

To all M’sian Fans out there.. the impossible looks possible this year.. Hang in there and lets cheer M’sia on..

But wait.. its not going to be an easy road for M’sia.. to me there are 4 teams which have the players to take us down. China, Korea, Denmark and Indonesia can be a worry to us… but I honestly think that we’ll make it to the Semi’s easily..

The pair were beaten by the Chinese duo of He Hanbin and Yu Yang, who were seeded second in the tournament and had previously beaten the British pair at the Olympics this year. Clark and Kellogg were eventually beaten 21-13, 21-19 in a match which lasted for 42 minutes.

The British duo had been hoping to win the match following an impressive performance in the quarter-final and semi-final of the tournament. They managed to beat Xu Chen and Pan Pan 15-21, 21-13, 21-19 in a match lasting almost one hour at the quarter-final stage.

The semi-finals saw them competing against Nova Widianto and Lilivana Natsir. The duo managed to win silver at the Olympics and have been victorious in the World Championships twice, so Clark and Kellogg needed to be at their best to stand any chance of success. Luckily for British badminton fans, they won 25-23, 23-21 in a match which lasted just 45 minutes.

Clark and Kellogg can be proud of their achievements in the French Open. However, badminton legend Nathan Robertson and his new partner, Jenny Wallwork, have been left feeling disappointed after losing 21-17, 21-19 to Malaysia’s Koo Kien Keat and Wong Peil Tty.

Clark and Kellogg will have given their chances of reaching the top eight (who will all qualify for the Super Series Masters final scheduled for December) a real boost.

Paris, 28 August, 2010 – At the Yonex Badminton World Championships 2010, currently taking place in Paris, Peace and Sport and the Badminton World Federation (BWF) signed a global partnership agreement to develop joint programs for peace-promotion.

This association will increase the operational capacities of Peace and Sport, an international initiative placed under the High Patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, which works to reconcile divided communities by establishing communication and dialogue through sport.

It will provide material support, technical resources and expertise from the BWF to lead programs for peace education for thousands of young people in need throughout the world.

The intrinsic qualities of badminton (courage, perseverance, discipline, respect for the opponent, acceptance of defeat) make it a sport particularly suited to foster reconciliation and stability within populations suffering the  consequences of armed conflicts, extreme poverty or lack of social cohesion.

Inexpensive in terms of equipment and infrastructure, the sport adapts easily to all types of cultural, economic and social environments, including the most disadvantaged.

The first joint operations will be rolled out in 2011 in two countries where Peace and Sport is already present.

– BADMINTON POR LA PAZ in Colombia: badminton will be used to provide guidance to vulnerable young people living in urban slums in Medellin and Cali and in areas affected by guerrilla warfare in Guapi. It will also support efforts to socially reintegrate internally displaced young refugees, often living on the fringe of society, who don’t attend school and who have been traumatized by their displacement.

          -BADMINTON BA DAME in East Timor: badminton will be offered to young people living in poor neighbourhoods of the capital Dili, to support their social integration and fight against the influence of violent street gangs.  Education programs through sport will be introduced to contribute to social cohesion in this country that has undergone years of intense violence.

Dr Kang Young Joong, BWF President, said: “This partnership with Peace and Sport will accelerate the development of our sport in many countries where we particularly want to invest ourselves. Beyond the values associated with playing the sport, badminton is also useful in civic education, socialization and open citizenship. We are extremely pleased to contribute to Peace and Sport’s action, which changes the lives of thousands of youngsters in vulnerable situations.”

Joel Bouzou, President and Founder of Peace and Sport, added: “Every sport has its own specific nature, which can provide a unique solution to the diverse needs of particular communities.This is certainly the case for badminton, whose educational values and benefits we intend to use to benefit vulnerable populations in Colombia and East Timor. This partnership with the BWF will allow us to be even more targeted and appropriate in operations we run in these two countries that have long suffered and deserve support in their efforts towards peace.”