Carolina’s tricks, Lee’s woes, Isinbayeva goes

Rohit Mahajan

Tribune News Service

Rio de Janeiro, August 20 

Carolina Marin is a smart badminton player, she knows how to play the game. She plays brilliantly well with the racquet, and she’s fantastic in getting under the skin of the opponent with her gamesmanship. And she doesn’t mind sharing this fact with the Spanish media. Through the match yesterday, Carolina’s high-pitched shrieks drew censure from the chair umpire — Carolina would then apologise with a raised hand, and then continue to shriek. “She’s good at this,” said a badminton circuit regular. “She’s been able to rattle many girls due to this, for she goes straight towards them (the net is between them, though) and shrieks at them. However, Sindhu has handled this very calmly.”

Carolina also regularly said no when Sindhu wanted to change the shuttle; she herself very often requested a shuttle change, and reacted with an expression of horror after her requests were rejected. “She’s an attacking player, and when such a player is there, the shuttle gets damaged quickly, and slows down,” she said. “I wanted the quickest game possible, that was in my interest, so I regularly requested for the shuttle to be changed.”

“Also, when I lost two-three points, I did that deliberately to and do a bit of psychological war,” Carolina said. Fernando Rivas is Carolina’s coach, but they also have Anders Thomsen, a towering figure who says he was just a modest player. We asked him if Carolina indulges in gamesmanship on the court. “She’s a very happy and funny person, and she’s also clever on the court,” says Rivas.

Lee’s China hurdle

“I want to rest, I miss my kids, my family,” said Lee Chong Wei, the great Malaysian badminton star, sadly. For the third Olympics in a row, Lee Chong Wei won silver. Now this is just terrific — four Olympics contested, three medals from them. Lee said he was happy, but his face looked very sad. He’s never experienced real happiness on the Olympics badminton final day. There’s always a great Chinese guy between him and gold. Lee has to do with silver, never gold. He lost to Lin Dan in 2008 and 2012. He beat Lin Dan in a fantastic semifinal contest, but now another Chinese star, Chen Long, barred his way to gold. Chen Long won 21-18, 21-18 in a match lasting 74 minutes. “I think today was not my day, I just tried every shot,” Lee said. “Today Chen Long played very well, I just lost by making some simple mistakes... Before coming I just focused on myself as this is my last Olympics. Malaysia has never won a gold medal so I wanted to try it this time. Now I will go home, see my family and rest for a few weeks.”

He’s beaten Lin Dan in the semifinal yesterday, and today said that he wasn’t really happy that the final was against Chen Long. “I really consider that match (against Lin Dan) should have been real final. We’ve played against each other so many times, and this is the fourth Olympics for both us,” he said. “It’s not easy to achieve. I think this is definitely going to be the last Olympics for both of us.” From four Olympics, Lee has medals from three; from four, Lin Dan has medals from two. But Lin Dan’s two medals are gold, Lee’s three are silver.  It’s a pity that the great Lee has never won the Olympics gold — he made the mistake of being born in the era of Lin Dan.

Isinbayeva retires

“Yelena Isinbayeva is finishing her career today,” said Yelena Isinbayeva, rather like a queen, speaking in the third person about herself. Isinbayeva, indeed, has been something of a queen over the last few years — the Russian pole-vaulter is a two-time Olympics gold winner and a three-time world champion. Isinbayeva didn’t compete in Rio because of the blanket ban on Russian track and field team, over allegations of state-backed doping.

“I’m very happy that I fulfilled my dreams, I won all possible medals, all possible titles, “ she said. She also took a dig at the pole vaulting event here — “Whoever wins tonight will do so without Isinbayeva, it won’t be a fully-fledged,” she said. “The champion will feel it’s not entirely gold because she didn’t beat Isinbayeva.” The women pole-vaulters here reacted to these comments and, to be honest, they do seem to be a case of sour grapes. But, as Sandi Morris of the US said, it’s quite understandable that “she could be so frustrated”.