Britain stun ‘superpower’ for rare badminton medal

Great Britain's Marcus Ellis (R) and Chris Langridge celebrate after winning bronze agains
AFP

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – British underdogs Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge stunned “superpower” China to bag a rare badminton medal for Team GB with bronze in the men’s doubles at the Rio Olympics Thursday.

The Britons, ranked a lowly 22nd in the world, defeated Chinese pair Chai Biao and Hong Wei, ranked fourth, in three games to claim only Britain’s third ever Olympic badminton medal and first since 2004.

Ellis and Langridge won the first game 21-18 and lost the second 21-19 before building a massive seven-point lead in the third to win it comfortably 21-10.

“We had a big lead and you could see the tension on their faces. They’ve got so much pressure on them because China are the badminton nation, the superpowers. Britain are lower down that order,” an ecstatic Langridge said afterwards.

Before Thursday Britain had only won two Olympic medals in Badminton since the sport was officially introduced to the Games at Barcelona in 1992 and they were both in mixed doubles.

Simon Archer and Joanne Goode won bronze in Sydney 16 years ago before Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson bettered that with silver at Athens 2004.

“It’s been a surreal week,” said Ellis, 26.

“We didn’t come here in the top seeds and we weren’t expected to get a medal. I don’t think we’ve performed like that ever so to do it on the very biggest stage is amazing,” he added.

Langridge, 31, said he’d put his body through the mill to get to that podium.

“After training my wife would come home and find me just lying there on the sofa not doing anything because I was so tired. 

“I think every day I was in the physio room being patched up but it was all worth it,” he told reporters

“We’ve been inconsistent, you say a bit naive, a bit raw, in the past but when it comes together we’re dangerous. We are good but it’s like a jigsaw. Sometimes there’s a piece missing but we found that piece in Brazil,” he added.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.