Badminton-gate continues. And concludes.

To say that badminton hit the news after last night would probably be an understatement. It seemed to be everywhere: the Internet, the newspapers, the radio, the TV...

Of all of what I heard/ read/ saw, my favourite quote was this:

''A quirk of the draw system meant that winning their group would mean meeting the toughest of opponents in the quarter-finals. Winning would mean losing. So they played like depressed blancmanges''.
- The Independent

Naturally, when I found out that all of the drama was still going down this morning, being the curious Games Maker that I am, I decided to be early to work.

The first news in was that all eight players had been disqualified. All players involved attended a hearing and statements etc. were taken, as well as another ladies doubles match (Japan vs. Chinese Taipei, I think) being put under investigation (this particular match got a not guilty verdict in the end). Indonesia and Korea originally appealed against their respective disqualifications, but then Indonesia withdrew the appeal. Interestingly, China did not appeal and their coach admitted that the players had been told to lose. I heard on the news that one of them is now planning to retire, and it's such a shame for her career to end this way, I suppose.

I went up to the stands to watch Lee Chong Wei's singles before my shift started and, when I walked past the draw again on the way to my shift, I saw that their scores had all been taken off and their ranks within their groups simply said 'DQF'. (The photo will have to follow because I was a slight fail today and left my camera memory card in my laptop, but I promise that other than the memory card exception I am 100% the organised Games Maker).

When I started work it was confirmed that they had all been disqualified, and that, in order to avoid skipping the quarter final stages, the pairs who had finished 3rd and 4th from the groups that the Chinese/ Indonesians/ Koreans had finished 1st and 2nd in, were no longer eliminated from the competition and would play in the quarter finals instead.

I was so glad that the Australians, Canadians, South Africans and Russians got a second chance, and that my (admittedly pretty damning) judgement yesterday of ''the chances of them being thrown out of the competition are very small'' was proven wrong!

Today I mopped for:

V. Sorokina & N. Vislova (Russia) vs. M. Edward & A. Viljoen (South Africa)

K. R. Juhl & C. Pedersen (Denmark) vs. M. Fujii & R. Kakiiwa (Japan)

Q. Tian & YL. Zhao (China) vs. WH. Cheng & TC. Chien (Chinese Taipei)

Although my sweat mopping is obviously without bias, I did really want the Danes to win their doubles, not only because they played in my (mighty) hometown a couple of years ago, but also because they are the only players yet to thank me for mopping up all of their sweat (I know that this is not in any way required of them, but it's a perk if they do). They maintained this record today (along with the minor line-judge traumatisation record), and I got a thank you and a racket-bum-tap from Kamilla 'can you mop here please, and there's some here too, and here, and in the middle please, thank you very much' Rytter Juhl.

Speaking of the quirky badminton racket-bum-tap, I've noticed that it appears to now be making less of an appearance, and seems to be being replaced by the mainstream high-5. My inner badminton-hipster isn't too sure about this.

'Rule 40' (limiting displayed sponsors on kit) has also been getting a fair amount of coverage on the news (though I think the match-fixing debacle did just about win that headline battle)and a lot of the players have had to have various logos 'taped up'. Apparently the Chinese ladies doubles pair went on to court with tape on their knee bandages yesterday and then ripped it off on court, displaying the sponsor. Today, they came on with said knee bandages (complete with tape), but one of them had some form of back support on around her stomach and, during the intervals, she seemed to be lifting her top to reveal this (bright blue) contraption and (presumably) the sponsor on it! It's all going on at the badminton at the moment!

Unfortunately, the night's matches did end on a sad note today, as the Japanese ladies singles player injured her knee and was forced to retire from the match. I was on the court next to it, and I became aware of it when the crowd booed her for not getting up (I guess that they're still slightly cynical after last night's events). She was put in the recovery position, and eventually sat up and was treated but, upon trying to play, she was in tears and could barely walk. She tried to play a couple of points and then asked for her knee to be strapped up, but that cannot be done until 11 or 21 (they had passed 11 and were quite a way off 21). She tried to carry on, but she couldn't put any weight on her leg, and she was sobbing so loudly (which, sadly, the cameras loved). Our match finished and, we were slow enough walking off court to see her coach get up, hug her, and bring her off the court. Her opposition (Tine 'wears extremely, extremely nice dresses even if they don't comply completely with clothing regulations' Baun) also came over and hugged her, and the crowd redeemed themselves by giving them a standing ovation. I then was on my way off court, when we saw one of the Australians in floods of tears after losing her match. I guess that it's inevitable really that stuff like that does happen, but hopefully we'll have happy tears in the future!

On a slightly more awkward-Jenny-story note, when I left the Arena today there were loads of fans waiting at the workforce entrance for some of the players. To say that me walking out was an anti-climax would probably be an understatement!

And, in other news, as of yesterday, my blog has been read on every single continent in the world! Thank you, mopping blog readers!