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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 16, 2001

Chinese Badminton Keeps Away from 7-point Scoring System

The traditional badminton powerhouse China has seemed not much interested in the new scoring system experimented by the International Badminton Federation (IBF) this year.


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The traditional badminton powerhouse China has seemed not much interested in the new scoring system experimented by the International Badminton Federation (IBF) this year.

The ongoing Ninth National Games here continues to adopt the old 15-point system and the best-of-three series instead of IBF's experimental 7-point and best-of-five format.

IBF put into trial the 7-point system in a bid to be more friendly to the television viewers and make the sport more appealing to the sponsors.

Under the old system, the badminton competition easily gets long-winded as one singles match sometimes may last up to more than one hour, while team events could often go for three or four hours.

"For the future of the sport, we must win over spectators and earn attention from the media, so that we could grab a bigger share of the sports market," said Lu Shengrong, former IBF president.

The IBF has demanded the scoring system be practiced in all international matches, and will make final decision in next year's annual session after one year experiment.

However, China has not jumped on the bandwagon, thinking the experimental format is likely to get nowhere.

"This reform has met strong opposition from the Asian badminton federation, which represents the leading forces in the badminton world, so the experiment is likely to end up in vain," said Ren Chunhui, a Chinese badminton official.

Experts had argued that the experimental system will be in favor of the European players, who hold advantage over the Asian players in physical strength and are quick to play into the rhythm of competition.

And it will hold back the Asian players who are more skillful and more at home with lengthy competition.

"Personally I do not support it," said Li Yongbo, head coach of China's national badminton team.

The national games does not implement the 7-point format also because soon after the previous national games in Shanghai four years ago, every local team had arranged their training schedule in accordance with the 15-point system.

"We want to maintain the consistency of the national games," said Ren.

"The new system is just a topic under discussion, it not very likely that the national games will be the last domestic event to stick to the original scoring system," he added.




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