I am finally feeling much better and was lucky enough to catch some of the world’s best badminton players in action in the M2006 games on the weekend. After only 30min into the games, I had the urge to jump onto the courts and have a hit. 
It was amazing to see the pros play as everything seems so easy for them. They were hitting the shuttles at around 200-250km/hr on average and the tournament record was 310km/hr (and I had the honour to witness it, well kinda)!! To put this number in perspective – the fastest cricket bowler bowls around 155km/hr; a great tennis serve for men is around 220km/hr, so for a shuttle to travel at 310km/hr – WOW!!
The other sport I went to watch was squash. It was the final day and I was there for the gold medal matches of the doubles. I always had this thought that having 2 people in a tiny room to thrash a ball around was kinda dull – until of course I gave it a try.
Squash is not as easy as what I first thought – the players must have incredibly lightning foot-work to know where to move and have their eyes wide-open not only for the ball but for their opponents bumping into them too. So I thought, to really appreciate this sport, I should go and have a look how the pros do it (and also learn some of the rules). As I said before, I went to see the doubles finals. Yes, that means FOUR people in the tiny room. It was amazing how fast the players were – not only in reacting to the ball, but also to react on what the person next to them was doing so they can somehow (in that tiny room) dodge a swinging racquet or the collision of bodies. Aussies took out gold for both mixed and women’s doubles but missed out on the men’s as it went to England. The men’s doubles match was the dullest of them all. All of the four male players were hitting the ball as hard and all of them were highly consistent. The match went forever so I left half-way, at least I didn’t see the Aussie lose…
It was amazing to see the pros play as everything seems so easy for them. They were hitting the shuttles at around 200-250km/hr on average and the tournament record was 310km/hr (and I had the honour to witness it, well kinda)!! To put this number in perspective – the fastest cricket bowler bowls around 155km/hr; a great tennis serve for men is around 220km/hr, so for a shuttle to travel at 310km/hr – WOW!!The other sport I went to watch was squash. It was the final day and I was there for the gold medal matches of the doubles. I always had this thought that having 2 people in a tiny room to thrash a ball around was kinda dull – until of course I gave it a try.
Squash is not as easy as what I first thought – the players must have incredibly lightning foot-work to know where to move and have their eyes wide-open not only for the ball but for their opponents bumping into them too. So I thought, to really appreciate this sport, I should go and have a look how the pros do it (and also learn some of the rules). As I said before, I went to see the doubles finals. Yes, that means FOUR people in the tiny room. It was amazing how fast the players were – not only in reacting to the ball, but also to react on what the person next to them was doing so they can somehow (in that tiny room) dodge a swinging racquet or the collision of bodies. Aussies took out gold for both mixed and women’s doubles but missed out on the men’s as it went to England. The men’s doubles match was the dullest of them all. All of the four male players were hitting the ball as hard and all of them were highly consistent. The match went forever so I left half-way, at least I didn’t see the Aussie lose…
Because of the Commonwealth games, it was the best time to promote the Australia Grand Prix 2006 held in Melbourne each year. I am not a fan of the Grand Prix at all but you gotta love the Solo racer!
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