Sunday celebrated Danish badminton the year’s biggest triumph, as Viktor Axelsen quite convincingly defeated taiwaneren Chou Tien Chen with a 21-13, 21-14 in the final at the All England.
The first Danish victory since Peter Gade’s triumph in 1999 was a reality. A unique result – in the truest sense of the word.
For All England was because of the coronasmitten Sunday’s only major sporting event.
the Organizers leaned up by the uk government’s recommendation, despite the fact that the rest of the sporting world closed ears on them.
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Viktor Axelsen secured Danish victory in the All England. A tournament, the Danish delegation chose to continue in spite of the cancellations in other sports. Photo: Andrew Boyers/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix
Denmark chose in addition to Abreu to continue with Rasmus Gemke and Anders Antonsen in England – but the decision was not easy to take, protests team he will play in the Danish Badminton Federation, Jens Meibom.
It was a dilemma. We assessed first and foremost, if we exposed ourselves and the players for a greater health risk by staying in England than to go home. That was the assessment completely clear, that we did not do that, ” says Meibom and justify it with the number of infected people, which at the time was lower than Denmark in the otherwise ten times larger country.
– Then we did it voluntarily. People need to assess whether they were comfortable with it or wanted to go home. At the time, wanted the players and the coaches to stay and get the job done.
– of Course we should talk about it, but they wanted to be – there was not a team event Thursday night, ” says Jens Meibom.
The many measures in other sports and in general in the whole world did, however, impression.
– We are not ignoranter of the things going on around us. But we felt that we acted irresponsibly.
We were almost isolated. The players went from the hotel to the hall and back and kept a distance to other people. We were aware of to avoid to expose us to a risk of infection, ” says Jens Meibom, who even went home Saturday with an injured Anders Antonsen.
the Event was also settled, with spectators – again based on the government’s recommendations.
But neither did it received a Danish Badmintonforbund to change the decision to be.
– There might have been 1000 spectators – far fewer than usual.
I have really no opinion to whether it should have been settled without spectators – it could have chosen. We felt, however, that we exposed our players and coaches for something irresponsible, says sportschefen.
There were spectators in the Arena Birmingham, but something less than normal. Photo: Andrew Boyers/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix
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