Badzine’s All-new Olympic Qualification Dummy List

To start off the best way for 2012, the Badzine team has worked hard to provide our readers with an accurate and up-to-date Olympic Qualification Dummy List. Unlike our previous lists, which were based on the world ranking list – which means they were including points earned in competitions before May 1^st – we have decided to publish a new dummy list, calculated using only those points that will count toward London qualification – earned after May 1^st – which gives a much more accurate idea of the forces in presence.

This list will now be slightly different from the World Ranking, but gives a sharper idea of the potential participants in the London Games. As we approach the cutoff of April 30th, 2012, our list will be more and more similar to the official BWF ranking list as the latter loses tournaments from early 2011.

This is not an official list – as only the BWF is entitled to give the names of the qualifying shuttlers – but this list will give fans, and players themselves, a better view of the players who could potentially qualify for the London Olympics.

This list is updated by our trio of experts amongst which a BWF-certificated umpire – and takes into account the BWF’s own qualification rules.

This week’s list under the new calculation format does not mention about players leaving or entering the dummy list as it is based on new figures, but you will be able to find these IN’s and OUT’s as soon as we publish the next list, mid January.

So what does this mean in terms of players?

In men’s singles, Chen Jin is still not up to the mark to go to London as the Chinese has nearly 5000 points to catch from Peter Gade in order to clinch a spot in the crucial top 4. How he fares in Korea and Malaysia will be crucial as both he and the Dane have more than 10 tournaments already. This means that the Chinese ace will have to post results that are not only better than his direct opponent, but rather better to the tune of 5000 points, if he wants to get the third possible seat for a Chinese shuttler, while Gade will of course try to hang onto a potential 4^th seed position.

As of December 29^th, Denmark would have only one shuttler qualified, as Hans-Kristian Vittinghus is just outside the crucial top 16 and his early outing in India won’t help. Copenhagen Masters winner Jan O Jorgensen, on his end, is looking like he could pass his compatriot as he is only 6000 points away from Vittinghus with only 8 tournaments played in the qualifying period – a great advantage as the next two tournaments will be purely added while Vittinghus’s coming points will only be the difference between his next competition and his 10^th best of the year.

As it stands, only China, Indonesia, Japan and Korea have 2 men’s singles qualified, but in the case of Korea, it’s not who you might think.  Shon Wan Ho stands at #15 in actual Olympic qualification points, while Park Sung Hwan, currently #13 in the official world rankings, is out of the top 30 in points since May.

In the bottom part of our dummy list, only one player qualifies thanks to his continental status – New Zealand’s Michael Fowke (191 in the WR). All others qualify as national representatives, such as Edwin Ekiring from Uganda, who is the only player from Africa, while the Americas have three shuttlers in – Daniel Paiola, Rodrigo Pacheco and the hero from this year’s World Championships, Kevin Cordon.

In the women’s singles, China is so far assured of sending three shuttlers to London, but Wang Shixian’s position as the third entry looks far less stable here than on the current world rankings, where the young star is still buoyed by her results early last year.

Things will be even more interesting a little further up the list. Japan’s Ai Goto is also just out the top 16 and would have stayed home if the qualifying period had ended this past week, but the tiny Japanese will have the opportunity to gain more points in the 4 months to come. This would mean that her team-mate Eriko Hirose would stay home as the latter stands quite far behind with already 15 tournaments played.

The first – and only – Malaysian to qualify is Tee Jing Yi at rank 60. In this version of the list, a remarkable number of 3 African shuttlers would qualify for the London Games – Grace Gabriel, Kerry-Lee Harrington and Rajae Rochdy.

The biggest surprise perhaps of this year’s Olympic qualifying period is the absence, from the men’s doubles dummy list, of the reigning Olympic champions Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan.  They are still out of the top 8 but perhaps more surprisingly, their compatriots Alvent Yulianto Chandra / Hendra Aprida Gunawan have snuck back in, for the time being at least, and replaced Japan’s Hashimoto/Hirata, whose performance in Liuzhou could not prevent the slip from the top 8, but who still stand to qualify for London.

In women’s doubles, the Super Series Finals performance by Denmark’s Pedersen/Rytter Juhl forced Korea’s second pair Jung Kyung Eun / Kim Ha Na out for now but Japan and China still have two each firmly in the top 8.  Nicole Grether / Charmaine Reid, have kept enough quality in their whopping 20 tournaments since May to stay ahead of their nearest Canadian and American challengers.

Mixed doubles is the only discipline where only three continents are represented, so far, as the top pairs from Africa and Oceania are out of the top 50.  It is also the discipline where positions of the top pairs differ the most from the current world rankings.  Our new numbers show that Thailand’s second pair, World #7 Songphon Anugritayawon / Kunchala Voravichitchaikul, are in fact well out of 8^th place, while Denmark has joined China in putting two pairs each into contention for Olympic qualifying.

Please find the latest lists at the links below.  They have been calculated using the world ranking points published by the BWF from May 1st to December 29th.  We aim to provide the next update on conclusion of the first two legs of the 2012 OSIM BWF Superseries.

The dummy lists:
Men’s Singles
Women’s Singles
Men’s Doubles (revised – Jan. 2)
Women’s Doubles
Mixed Doubles

You will always be able to find the latest dummy lists on this page, or find it in our ‘Features’ menu at the top of any Badzine page.  To see the complete current BWF world rankings, click here and you can still find the links to the dummy lists from December 1st, November 3^rd, and October 6^th but keep in mind that these were compiled differently using current world ranking points, including tournaments from before the start of the Olympic qualification period.