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Thomas Cup Badminton

Thomas Cup generalThomas Cup badminton match.

Thomas Cup Badminton (“Soup Cup” for short in Chinese) is the world’s highest level men’s badminton team competition, namely the World Men’s Badminton Team Championship. It was founded by the former International Badminton Federation in 1948. Held every two years. When the International Badminton Federation was established in 1934, British George Thomas was elected president. Five years later, Thomas proposed at the International Badminton Federation meeting that the time was right to organize a world men’s team competition, and said he would donate a trophy for the competition, called the “Thomas Cup”.

On May 15, 2022, the Indian team won the championship with a 3-0 victory over Indonesia in the 2022 Thomas Cup badminton team final. This is also the first time that the Indian team has won the Thomas Cup championship.

Origin of the trophy

Like the Davis Cup in tennis, the world badminton also has a men’s team’s highest honor cup – Thomas Cup Badminton, donated by the famous British badminton player Thomas.

When the International Badminton Federation was established in 1934, British George Thomas was elected president. Five years later, Thomas proposed at the International Badminton Federation meeting that the time was right to organize a world men’s team competition, and said he would donate a trophy for the competition, called the “Thomas Cup”. This proposal was approved by the General Assembly, but due to the outbreak of the Second World War, the cup originally scheduled to be held around 1941 was delayed. After World War II, the International Badminton Federation finally held the first Thomas Cup in England from 1948 to 1949, and Malaysia became the first country whose name was engraved on the Thomas Cup. Since 1982, the team competition has been held every two years, and the competition system has changed from 9 games and 5 wins in the past two days (5 singles and 4 doubles) to 5 games in one day and 3 wins (3 singles and 2 doubles). As of 1998, the Cup has been held for 20 sessions, and the Champions Cup has been flowing among Indonesian, Malaysian and Chinese teams in Asia. Among them, Indonesia has the best record, winning a total of 11 cups; the Malaysian team has won 5 times; the Chinese team has participated in the Thomas Cup since 1982, and won the Thomas Cup 4 times in the 9 competitions it participated in.

The Thomas Cup is 28 cm high, and the width including the handle is 16 cm. It consists of three parts: the base, the cup and the lid. There is a model of an athlete at the top of the lid. The front of the cup is engraved with the words: “George Thomas Barthes presented the International Badminton Champion Challenge Cup organized by the International Badminton Federation in 1939”. The cup is said to have been cast in platinum in London and was worth £50,000 at the time.

Development History

The first Thomas Cup was postponed until 1948 due to World War II, when 10 countries and regions participated in the competition. The Thomas Cup is a mobile cup. The champion team of each game will bring the “Soup Cup” back to their home country, which will be retained until the next “Soup Cup” competition starts. Therefore, the Thomas Cup is also known as the “International Badminton Challenge Cup”.

Since 1984, the event has been held every two years. The competition is divided into three stages: preliminaries, semi-finals and finals, which will be held from November 1 of the year before the final to June 30 of the final year. The 6 teams that qualified for the semi-finals in the corresponding regions plus the host country that directly entered the finals and the previous champions, a total of 8 teams entered the finals. If the host country is also the winner of the previous championship, then in the semi-finals, 7 teams will enter the final. The 8 final teams are divided into two groups, and the winner is the one who wins the most points. If the score is the same, the winner will be ranked first. So the group stage has to finish 5 games. If the number of games and games is still the same, the ranking will be determined by drawing lots. All teams participating in the competition need to select 4 to 10 athletes 14 days before the competition, and list the first singles, second singles, third singles, first doubles, second doubles and substitute athletes according to the world ranking at that time list. Each athlete can only participate in one singles and one doubles match at most. The top ranked players in the world are absolutely not allowed to play post singles or doubles assignments. In 1996, 56 countries and regions participated in this event. In the 29 competitions that have been held, Indonesia has won the cup 13 times, China has won the championship 9 times, and Malaysia has won the gold 5 times.

On September 15, 2020, the BWF announced that in view of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and the resulting withdrawal of many teams, it has decided to postpone the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup badminton team competitions planned to be held in Aarhus, Denmark in October. The new competition date is in 2021. On December 21, the BWF released the calendar for the first half of 2021. The Thomas Cup badminton team tournament, which was postponed due to the epidemic in 2020, is scheduled to be held in Denmark in mid-October 2021. The 2020 Thomas Cup World Badminton Men’s Team Championship will be held in Aarhus, Denmark from October 9, 2021. This team world championship has been postponed for nearly a year and a half due to the impact of the epidemic.

On May 15, 2022, in the final of the 2022 Thomas Cup badminton team match, the Indian team faced the Indonesian team. Lakshya Sen got a good start for the team. After that, the Indian team won two consecutive games, and they won 3-0. Sweeping the Indonesian team to win the championship, this is the first time the Indian team has won the Thomas Cup.

Introduction to the competition system

The Thomas Cup used to be a best-of-nine game, with five singles and four doubles played over two days. After 1984, the competition method was changed to a five-match three-best system (played within a unit time), that is, three singles and two doubles. There are 6 kinds of competitions, the purpose is to ensure that the athletes participating in the two competitions have at least 30 minutes of rest time.

The 6 sorts are as follows:

(1) 1 single-2 single-3 single-1 double-2 double

(2) 1 single-2 single-3 single-2 double-1 double

(3) 1 single-1 double-2 single-2 double-3 single

(4) 1 single-2 double-2 single-1 double-3 single

(5) 1 single-2 single-1 double-3 single-2 double

(6) 1 single-2 single-2 double-3 single-1 double

Competitions in which there are no concurrent athletes on either side are played in accordance with the first order. In the preliminaries and semi-finals, the first and second sorting are used. In the final stage choose the order of 3rd to 6th.

Classic event

In 1986, the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup were held in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, but the Chinese team had already made up their minds to pull their teeth out. After the women’s team won the championship with a 3-2 victory over Indonesia, the coaches of the Chinese team prepared a bold formation for the Thomas Cup final: considering Han Jian’s lack of physical strength, they lost to Malaysia’s Misbun and Denmark. Frost, and other young players have not lost until the semi-finals, they are determined to use Yang Yang as the first singles, and all young players. Since Indonesia had successfully ranked Lin Shuijing in the second singles position in the match against Denmark, the Chinese team decided to beat Lin’s Ding Qiqing in the Yonex Cup in Japan in January, and the third singles Xiong Guobao, who has a stable style of play and has a lot of “grinding skills”.

The final final was changed to the first singles, which is rare in the history of badminton. Some people in the Indonesian badminton world have also asked whether the Chinese team will not use Han Jian, but the conclusion is that the Chinese team will not take this risk. The row was later called “the most sensible and carefully planned gamble in badminton history” by Hong Kong’s Ming Pao.

After exchanging the list of appearances, it was found that the Indonesian team ranked Lin Shuijing in the third singles position, avoiding Ding Qiqing, who had defeated him, and forcing the fledgling Xiong Guobao. The teammates were all sweating for Xiong Guobao.

The result of the first match was as expected, with Yang Yang easily beheading Suguiato 15-7, 15-1. Then the Chinese team’s second singles Ding Qiqing lost to the Indonesian team Liu Banggao, with a big score of 1-1.

As soon as Lin Shuijing, the hero in the hearts of Indonesian fans, came out, the shouting in the stadium suddenly rose to a climax. Xiong Guobao, who is 1.82 meters tall, stepped onto the field and glanced around. He felt the darkness around him, and the shouts, trumpets, and percussion filled his ears. A bear who has never experienced such a scene. National Treasure, his hands trembled disobediently. At the beginning of the game, the ball flew over, and Xiong Guobao was relieved at once. There was only the flying badminton in front of him, and everything was gone. 15 to 13, another 15 to 13! Xiong Guobao couldn’t contain his excitement, so he slipped through the net and rushed to Lin Shuijing to shake hands with him. Coach Hou Jiachang was also excited, he ran into the field and hugged Xiong Guobao.

On the big scoreboard on the sidelines, there are two identical Arabic numerals “2”. Zhang Qiang and Zhou Jincan lost to Ji Mingfa and Chen Fortune, and the Chinese team and the Indonesian team drew again.

The audience was boiling again. Lin Shuijing had only been off the court for less than 40 minutes. He only changed his jersey, and before the sweat on his head was completely dry, he got up again and played with Ye Zhongming for the last doubles match. The audience seemed to have forgotten his failure just now, and once again responded with singing and applause. A fan jumped from the stand, propped up an Indonesian flag, and hugged Lin Shuijing tightly in his arms. Lin Shuijing closed his eyes gently, kissed the flag silently, and then turned to play.

The moment has come to decide the fate of both parties. Opposite Lin Shuijing and Ye Zhongming are the best doubles duo of the Chinese team, Li Yongbo and Tian Bingyi. In the first game, Li Yongbo and Tian Bingyi led 14-5, but the opponents were entangled and they played even more fiercely. The two of them served a total of 16 times, but they couldn’t score this point, and the opponent’s score rose steadily. Finally, 15 to 12, the Chinese team won the crucial first game and took the initiative. The second game was 14-5 again, with Li and Tian taking the lead. Lin Shuijing and Ye Zhongming regained the right to serve again and again, and they held on to it again and again. In front of the powerful and energetic young players of the Chinese team, Lin Shuijing’s struggle was tragic, but it did not give people hope. The audience is already leaving, maybe they can’t bear to see the hero fail. With a heavy dunk by Li Yongbo, the victory of the Chinese team was a foregone conclusion.

At the final award ceremony, the chairman of the Indonesian Badminton Federation awarded the Thomas Cup to the Chinese team with red eyes. When people asked him to express his views, he said in a heavy tone: “Our players have done their best, and we are defeated. Giving a team stronger than us.”

Soup Cup

As of 2018, the Indonesian team has won 13 championships, the Chinese team has won 10 championships, the Malaysian team has won 5 championships, the Japanese team has won the championship once, and the Danish team has won the championship once.

Overview of Thomas Cup Badminton Tournament

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