CHINA WINS 3 CROWNS AT POLISH BADMINTON OPEN

April 1, 1996 (D.SHUTTLENWS) - At the inaugural edition of the Polish
Open badminton championships (March 28-31), entries from the People's
Republic of China took three of the five championships at stake.

This Polish Open, made more important by its placement in the badminton
calendar as the last Grand Prix event for players to qualify to participate
in the Atlanta Olympic Games in July, featured many fine performances as
Olympic hopefuls fought to improve their chances of making the Olympic
qualifiers list.

In the men's singles, Yu Lizhi took the measure of Peter Knowles in the
final. Knowles, the controversial English player who had withdrawn from
the prestigious All-England Open in mid-March after learning that he was
to play a top-ranked opponent, had earlier upset Chinese star Sun Jun in
the semifinals and virtually cemented his hold on the second and last
British men's singles Olympic berth.

In the men's doubles, Tao Xiaoqiang and Ge Cheng defeated Nick Ponting
and Julian Robertson of England in a hard-fought three-game final. Robert-
son was trying to earn enough Olympic qualifying points to get past
compatriots Neill Cottrill and John Quinn for the second British men's
doubles spot, while Ponting already has a firm grip on qualifying in
mixed doubles.

In the mixed doubles final, Chen Xingdong and Peng Xingyong bolstered
China's bid to qualify 3 mixed doubles entries for the Olympics by
besting Nick Ponting and Joanne Wright. (To qualify three entries from
one nation in one event, the three entries must all be in the top
16 of the ranking list).

In the women's singles, Wang Chen of China hurt her chances of securing
the third Chinese women's singles Olympic spot by losing to the unseeded
Meiluawati of Indonesia in the final. Wang, the world junior champion,
was in a tight Olympic qualifying race with Yao Yan.

In the women's doubles, Marina Andrievskaya, a former Russian star now
playing for Sweden, teamed up with Christine Magnusson, a Ugandan-turned-
Swede, defeated the pair of Joanne Muggeridge of England and Kelly Morgan
of Wales in the final.

Despite their loss, Muggeridge and Morgan greatly improved their chances
of making the Olympic qualifying list with their finals appearance in
the Polish Open and may have bumped compatriots Nicola Beck and Joanne
Davies off the list.

COPYRIGHT 1996 by D.Shuttlenws@genie.com.

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