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BADMINTON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2005 - From the eyes of a line judge
The 2005 World Championships was held at Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, USA. This is the home of the Mighty Ducks – that is why it is called “Pond”. There is no water anywhere nearby. This is the team and grounds many have seen in the movie and the team is sponsored by Disney. Anaheim is the city of tourists as it is where Disneyland is situated and there are several theme parks here.
The Stadium is very large and security was really tight. Most of the Umpires and Line Judges were lucky as they were accommodated in a Hotel just across the road from the Stadium. The weather is fine but on the warm and humid side compared to Sydney. In fact there was no rain at all for the two weeks I’ve been here – and no water restrictions.
The tournament was played on five courts with one warm up court – all on taraflex mats laid on a sprung board timber platform. Organization was good and went like clockwork, though of course several matches took longer than expected - but these were really enjoyed. There was a very strong IBF presence and for a “non badminton country’ crowd attendance was very good. There were about 5000 spectators even on weekday afternoons and a lot of this might be due to publicity in the Chinese media which covered the tournament even with photo spreads in the local newspapers.
There was a draft of wind in the hall and there could have been several players who succumbed at least slightly to this. However the more experienced players were still able to have the control they needed and we witnessed excellent play. Many expected Lee Chong Wei to progress a little further but Taufik Hidayat showed his brilliance as the final winner. I believe the best four reached the mens singles semi finals but one person who lost in an early round to watch out for will be Poompat Sapkulchana – an excellent young player from Thailand.
The ladies singles was dominated by China but Kaori Mori from Japan and especially Shao-Chieh Cheng from Taipeh are certainly current threats to those on top. In the mens doubles, the United States pair of Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach rose above everyone else, maybe even to their own surprise. Somehow the mainstream press had very little coverage for a World Championship win by local players. From the cheering in the hall, it was obvious that USA had all the support they needed – and next came the Chinese players though Denmark had their own brand of cheering.
The ladies doubles was again dominated by the Chinese but when it came to the mixed there was a varied group which reached the last four. As an Australian, I was very proud that Daniel and Sara from NZ progressed steadily reaching this level; a great achievement for Oceania. They beat the Koreans and had to play against the Chinese, while the Indonesians came up against the pair from Thailand. The Indonesians managed to win.
There were about sixty lines persons and we were organized in groups of four for the first three days as we worked on all the five courts. Then the numbers were dropped back to forty – four groups of ten and for the finals dropped back to twenty (two groups) as only one court was being used. So many line judges were freed up to watch the matches or do their own thing. The way things were organized, everything ran very smoothly. At this tournament it was decided that there would be no rotation of the line judges during the 90 second or 5 minute breaks. It was felt that this might be too cumbersome to manage. Some matches took over an hour and the line judge had to stay on the same line.
A general information meeting was organized for umpires and line judges and this was presided over by Paisan with Torsten assisting. There was discussion about new scoring – to 21 rally points – and this will be tried out soon. There was also some discussion on how a line overrule should be made. Line judges were initially informed that the Umpire will ask for a confirmation of the call before overruling. However at this meeting it was decided that this did not seem appropriate and a request for confirmation could appear as a doubt in the Umpires mind. If an Umpire is sure, there should be a clear and direct overrule.
The entertainment during the breaks in the finals was varied and superbly fitness based. The rap dancing, gymnastic show by a few guys was breathtaking while the dancing by attractively clad young ladies got everyone talking about the dress that was appropriate for badminton players – especially our ladies. This even got some press releases by top IBF officials.
All in all it was an excellent experience, being here. Thanks to everyone in Badminton Australia.
Jerome Gomez | 
