A recap of the final day of the WCH and some thoughts about the whole championship:
Men's singles: Kento Momota defeated Shi Yuqi (21-11, 21-13)
Women's singles: Carolina Marín defeated P. V. Sindhu (21-19, 21-10)
Men's Doubles: LI Junhui and Liu Yuchen defeated Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda (21-12, 21-19)
Women's Doubles: Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara defeated Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota (19-21, 21-19, 22-20)
Mixed Doubles: Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong defeated Wang Yilü and Huang Dongping (21-17, 21-19)
Most of the favourites in the finals won, with the exception of the women's doubles. All of the winners, except women's singles, won their first gold medals at a WCH. Kento Momota became the first Japanese to win men's singles. In women's doubles, Japan broke China's dominance. China had won women's doubles every time since they first participated in 1983, except 1995 (South Korea won) and now 2018. Another historical achievement is Carolina Marín's victory in women's singles. Marín became the first European player in any category to win 3 gold medals at the World championships!
The final medal table:
China again won the medal table, like they have done since 2001. Japan won a record of 6 medals at a WCH. It's clear that Japan wants to make it shower with medals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2 years in badminton. To some more negative facts, my country, Denmark, disappointed at this world championship by not winning any medals. This has only happened twice before. Though, there is one country where Nanjing was their Waterloo, and that is South Korea. South Korea has won a least one medal since they entered for the first time in 1983, but this edition became the end of that statistic. I guess it is time for South Korea to self-reflect on how to comeback to the top of international badminton again.
On an end note, I will reflect a bit on the next edition. The WCH is coming back to Europe again. For the second time Switzerland is hosting the WCH (Lausanne 1995), and for the first time Basel is the host. Some of the questions for the next edition could be; Will more European nations compete for a place on the podium? Will China continue their dominance away from home soil? Will Japan continue their uprising in international badminton? Will India finally win a gold medal? Will Carolina Marín write a new chapter to her legendary status? Is South Korea no longer invited to the party of top nations in badminton? If not, who will then take their place in the spotlight?
We will know much more in about a year after the finals have been played at 2019 BWF World championship in Basel.
Zài jiàn Nanjing, and gruetzi Basel!