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FREEMAN HEART & LUNG TRANSPLANT ASSOCIATION REGISTERED CHARITY 700730 |
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Athens 2004 A welcome home to the Olympic Badminton Team As an avid Badminton fan imagine my surprise and delight when I received an invitation from Stephen Baddeley, Chief Executive of the Badminton Association of England, to a welcoming home ceremony for the Olympic Badminton Players. The ceremony was held in the National Badminton Centre at Milton Keynes and it gave me a chance to meet and talk with some true athletes, including Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms the silver medallists in the mixed doubles – if only I could play like them – never mind one can dream!! The ceremony began with a celebratory glass of champagne followed by the introduction of the team and their coaches. After a questions and answer session a wonderful buffet lunch was held during which the mixed doubles final was replayed. It was great to watch the expressions on both Gail and Nathan’s faces, as this was the first time they had managed to watch the match themselves Below is a photograph of the silver medallist Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson with their medals.
This article was written
by Update 7th February 2005: Gail and Nathan defeated Robert Blair and Natalie Munt 15-7, 15-4 yesterday in Manchester to regain the English Title. Further Update:
Nathan and Gail won the mixed doubles title on Sunday, 13th March at the Yonex
All England Open Badminton Championships beating Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla
Rytter Juhl, of Denmark, 15 - 10, 15 - 12. Very well done to them both!!
It was a brilliant day for English sport and the atmosphere was electric. it was good to experience the event live and I was quite hoarse afterwards with all the shouting and cheering. 2nd May 2005
Thank you to:- The Badminton Association of England kindly donated £150 to the Freeman badminton team towards their costs for the World Transplant Games in Canada later this year. Judith
Update 16th February 2006: Yonex All England Badminton Championships 2006 After seeing Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms lift the Mixed Doubles trophy in the 2005 championships, it was with great anticipation that I went to watch the 2006 championships. I had hoped that Nathan and Gail would do it again and be the first mixed doubles pair, in twenty five years, to be champions in successive years. They met Zhang Jun & Goa Ling in the final and this was their chance of revenge for the Olympics where Zhang and Ling narrowly beat them, earning them Gold and Nathan and Gail having to make do with Silver. The English took the first game 15 –12 and in the second game they had five match points but failing to capitalise on these they took the decision to set to 17. The Chinese went on to win this 17 –14. This meant a deciding game and unfortunately Zhang Jun and Gao Ling took this 15 – 1. Although the English pair didn’t win it was still great to watch some tremendous Badminton and I am now looking forward to watching some more wonderful Badminton at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.
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