Badminton at the 2012 Olympics

The Olympics will be a rare chance to watch badminton on TV. For those who haven't seen it played at a high level before, it's worth checking out. It's the fastest racquet sport in the world, the record for a smash is 421km that's over 260mph! That also makes it the fastest sport at the Olympics, that shuttle will be travelling faster than Naomi Folkard's arrows! (Naomi being our archery Team GB representative from Leamington Spa!)



Badminton Team GB (L-R): Rajiv Ouseph, Susan Egelstaff, Imogen Bankier and Chris Adcock


The Chinese will be favourites for most of the divisions, with the divisions being Mens Singles, Womens Singles, Mens Doubles, Womens Doubles and Mixed Doubles. However, Team GB have got a 'Fab 4' of entrants this year.


Mixed Doubles pairing of Scotland's Imogen Bankier and England's Chris Adcock qualified ahead of GB compatriots Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork. They achieved Silver in the recent badminton world championships, which incidentally were held at the Wembley Arena, the same place as the 2012 Olympic badminton venue. The pair that beat them in the final are their first opponents at the games.


You can catch Chris and Imo's games on TV on:
Sat 28th July at 9:40am v Russian pair, Nikolaenko and Sorokina (possibly on BBC3)
Sun 29th July at 8:30am v German pair, Fuchs and Overzier 
Tues 31st July at 3:20pm v Chinese pair, Zhang and Zhao
Note: these are revised dates and times (updated 27/07/12)




Imogen Bankier and Chris Adcock


Scottish Susan Egelstaff is the Team GB entrant for the Womens Singles.


You can catch Susan's pool games on TV on:
28th July at 12:30pm v Slovenian Tvrdy
31st July at 1:05pm v Japanese Sato



Susan Egelstaff

There was no qualifying pairs for Womens or Mens Doubles, meaning the only other Team GB representative is Londoner Rajiv Ouseph who will compete in the Mens Singles.


You can catch Rajiv's pool games on TV on:
29th July at 8:15pm v Swede Hurskainen 
31st July at 1:40pm v Guatemalan Cordon



Rajiv Ouseph


Good luck to all the Team GB Entrants!


For more details check out http://www.badmintonengland.co.uk


Or perhaps wish them luck on twitter:
Chris Adcock  @ChrisAdcock1
Imogen Bankier  @imogenbankier
Rajiv Ouseph  @rajivouseph