Chinese badminton players Cai and Fu win gold medals in men's doubles

 LONDON, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese badminton players Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng beat their rivals 2-0 Sunday afternoon, and clinched¹ gold medals in men's doubles in the Wembley Arena².

These are the first gold medal won by Chinese in that event. This means Chinese raked in all the five badminton gold medals produced at the London Olympics.

Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen from Denmark won the silver, while the bronze fell into pockets of Jung Jae Sung and Lee Yong Dae from South Korea.

Cai and Fu geared³ up quickly in the first game to rule the court, where the Danish only started to become aggressive after being outscored 1-4. They impressed the audience by catching⁴ up the Chinese pair, who enjoyed 11-6 advantage before the interval⁵, and levelling the scores 12-12. But some mistakes from Boe and Mogensen sent their rival to a 21-16 victory.

In the second game the Danish made desperate attempts. Li Yongbo, China's badminton head coach, shouted from the stand every now and then to remind Cai and Fu to "run quickly". With Cai Yun's last shot missed by the rivals, China won, 21-15.

Cai Yun rushed out of the court for celebration, while his partner Fu shed tears in excitement.

"This is the exact result we aimed for," said Cai, 32. "We have been playing together for over 10 years, and have entered the Olympics three times. Last time in Beijing we only achieved silver, and we were regretful."

The combination of Fu Haifeng's power with his regular partner Cai Yun's speed enabled the pair to become world's leading men's doubles team since 2004. After the Beijing Olympics, however, they seemed to be in a downturn.

"After failure, we were more mature," said Cai. "For match we were not afraid of failure, we tried to enjoy it. We were not scared at all, not nervous. Part of the reason we won was we were full of confidence."

Fu, 28, said the title was like "a dream coming true". "This will probably be the greatest recognition⁶ of our badminton career," he said. "Next time, our performance might be even better because we don't have any pressure now that we have achieved this goal. Next time we will play in a different state of mind."

Li Yongbo was delighted because their victory not only signalled a clean sweep of badminton golds at the London Olympics, but also suggested a breakthrough of the men's doubles, as the gold of men's doubles seemed always elusive⁷ in the past.

"I hope that these medals could change people's perception⁸ on the event," he said. "Many people considered men's doubles the Achilles' heel

for China's national badminton team. In fact, Cai and Fu have harvested 14 world titles. This victory is a new starting point for us."

The disappointed Boe said, "right now it doesn't feel that good. We hoped for more but of course after half an hour or a little bit later today we will probably be satisfid with reaching final and getting silver."

While his partner said they have tried to believe they would win the whole time. "We tried to fight even though it was 14-18, we still tried and told each other to focus."

Finn Traerup-Hansen, coach from the Danish team, said he was "extremely happy" with the result. Earlier Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen have pocketed bronze medals in mixed doubles. "That's extraordinary for a country of 5.5 million people," he said. "So of course we are very happy."

1 clinched   

v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议）

参考例句：

• The two businessmen clinched the deal quickly. 两位生意人很快达成了协议。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Evidently this information clinched the matter. 显然，这一消息使问题得以最终解决。 来自辞典例句

2 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

3 geared   

adj.连接的

参考例句：

• The programme is geared to preparing students for the world of work. 本计划旨在为学生开始就业作准备。
• The party is all geared up for the forthcoming election campaign. 该党为即将来临的竞选活动做好了准备。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

5 interval   

n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息

参考例句：

• The interval between the two trees measures 40 feet.这两棵树的间隔是40英尺。
• There was a long interval before he anwsered the telephone.隔了好久他才回了电话。

6 recognition   

n.承认，认可，认出，认识

参考例句：

• The place has changed beyond recognition.这地方变得认不出来了。
• A sudden smile of recognition flashed across his face.他脸上掠过一丝笑意，表示认识对方。

7 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

8 perception   

n.感知，感觉，觉察(力)；认识，观念，看法

参考例句：

• What's your perception of the matter?你对此事有什么看法？
• He was a man of keen perception.他是一个感觉敏锐的人。