BWF World Championships 2011

We had the opportunity to catch the semi-finals of the Badminton World Championships live at the Wembley Arena. I know in Malaysia it’s a big hit with many people tuning in to watch the games, but here in London….it could not have been more different. A far cry from Wimbledon Tennis where we had to wait 9 hours just to get a ground pass in, back in July (see blog on Wimbledon), with the badminton, tickets are sold at half prices for earlybirds and even then, the stadium/arena is only 3/4 full for the semis!!!

 

Despite the small crowd turnout, there is great atmosphere esecially during the Malaysia game. Many of the spectators are Malaysians holding big Malaysian flags. When Lee Chong Wei (world No 1) played  China's Jin Chen (World No 16) chorus of 'Malaysia Boleh' and 'Chong Wei Boleh' kept the spirits up, and bounced aginst cheers of 'Jin Chen Jia You'…

 

Also had the opportunity to see  Chong Wei and his coach closer up when he was signing autographs (but we missed out as they shut the line)…but must admit that am a bit disappointed that for a world class sportsman representing Malaysia, his spoken English isn't too fluent….(he speaks hokkien)