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World Sports
News Roundup
France
to host 2018 Ryder Cup
France has been named as the host
country for the Ryder Cup in 2018, winning
against favourites Spain and ahead of
bids from Portugal, Germany and The
Netherlands.
Le Golf National course, near Paris, which
has hosted 18 of the last 20 French Open
tournaments, has been chosen as the
venue for the event. It will be the first time
France has hosted the biennial Europe
versus United States match and only the
second time the event will have been
played on mainland Europe.
There had been support for calls to award
the event to Spain in honour of the five-
time major winner Seve Ballesteros, who
was patron of the Madrid bid and died
earlier this month after a long battle with
cancer.
‘France’s bid was exceptional. They have
a first-class tournament venue already
built,’ said European Tour chief executive
George O’Grady.
To fund the French bid, every registered
golfer in the country has donated one euro
to the cause, and it is hoped that landing
the tournament will boost the development
of golf in France, which has promised to
build more than 100 urban golf courses.
The French bid says it wants the number
of registered players to increase from
400,000 to 700,000 by 2022, and it is also
aiming to have three native players in
Europe’s Ryder Cup team by 2022.
Scotland
-
Glasgow wins World
Gymnastics bid
Glasgow has won the hosting rights
for the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics
Championships beating rivals Paris and
Orlando to secure the event.
The International Gymnastics Federation
Council voted out Paris in the first round,
before Glasgow polled 23 votes, to
Orlando’s 13 in the second and final round
of voting.
The event is scheduled to be held in the
National Arena Scottish Exhibition and
Conference Centre - due to open in 2013,
it will also host the gymnastics at the 2014
Commonwealth Games, which Glasgow
is hosting.
British Gymnastics developed the bid with
the support of UK Sport, Event Scotland
and the City of Glasgow’s major event
teams.
Meanwhile, the 2015 World Rhythmic
Gymnastics
Championships
were
awarded to Stuttgart and the 2015
Trampoline World Championships to
Odense in Denmark.
‘Bringing badminton back home’ to their
capital city for the passionate, dedicated
fans, players and staff offered Badminton
England the opportunity to once again
put on a show that made the world see
‘badminton as they had never seen it
before’ as well as creating a world-class
sporting event to be rivalled.
Come next year Wembley Arena will be
packed with badminton and sports fans
alike to witness the global badminton
stars battle it out again for their chance to
become Olympic champion.
This August was no different, and
thankfully for all those people who applied
for Olympic badminton tickets and missed
out, the opportunity to watch the world’s
fastest racket sport compete on a global
stage was not lost.
Badminton England Chief Executive,
Adrian Christy, said “We were delighted
that demand for tickets for the greatest
badminton event in the world was so
huge and it underlines the popularity of
the sport in this country and across the
globe.
The successful bid to host the World
Championships seven-day event was
staged by Badminton England and had
support from UK Sport’s National Lottery
funded World Class Events Programme
and London & Partners (previously based
at Visit London) on behalf of the Mayor of
London.
The event also helped inspire more
participation in the sport through
the Mayor’s backing of the World
Championships Badminton Festival for
3,000 young people in the lead up to the
event.”
To add to the success of this event was
Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier’s
incredible journey making the mixed
doubles final and coming away with a well
deserved silver medal.
The pick of the days finals was, without
doubt, the men’s singles clash between
top seed and world No 1 Lee Chong Wei
and second seed Lin Dan.
The Malaysian won the opening game
22-20 but Lin Dan hit back to take the
second 21-14.
That set up a thrilling decider in which
China’s hero Lin Dan saved two match
points before winning it 23-21 on his first
match point.
Badminton Championships
- A Huge Success
Wang Yihan won the women’s singles,
Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng retained their
men’s doubles title and Wang Xiaoli and
defending champion Yu Yang won the
men’s doubles.
Over the week the 31,000Wembley crowd
included London Mayor Boris Johnson
and Olympic Chairman Lord Coe.
When Badminton England won the right to host the Yonex BWF
World Badminton Championships back in 2007 they never thought
it would have the huge impact on the sporting world that it did.
Adcock and Bankier on track
for Olympic qualification
Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier’s
incredible journey continued in Wembley
Arena recently (pictured) when they
achieved a career high, by winning silver
in the mixed doubles final at the Yonex
BWF World Badminton Championships.
Their 21-15 21-7 defeat by top seeds
Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei meant China
took all five titles for the second year
running after their success in Paris last
year.
Chris stated that “It was amazingly
tough… they are No. 1 for a reason – It’s
a world final and they had the experience”
The brilliant performance by the Anglo-
Scottish paring, who have only been
training as a competitive pairing since
January this year, had ambitious hopes
of making the quarter finals, following a
tough draw.
That goal was well and truly beaten when
they toppled the fifteenth, fourth and
second seeds on the way to the final.
Adcock insisted he was “speechless” but
added “the feeling that went through me
at the end was nothing I had experienced
before. It makes everything worth it.”
They also had a huge impact on the
31,000 people who attended the World
Championships over the week, with the
support being “out of this world”.
Insight