BADMINTON

As a world sport, badminton has a surprisingly narrow geographical footprint. Basically, there is England, where it was invented; parts of Asia (China, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan), who have all the best players; and Denmark. I have never managed to work out why badminton became so popular in Denmark, but popular it is. Virtually every small town has a sports hall, where badminton is played throughout the winter, not least by me. Though not in the summer, of course.

Not only is it popular, but the Danes are actually quite good at it. Much better than England, for example, which has ten times the population. In the world championships in London that finished today, Denmark had six quarter finalists in the five events. Unfortunately, that tally was converted into only one bronze medal, as the Asian superstars turned the screws in the final rounds. China won all five gold medals for the second year running, which underlines their dominance.

But they had to work hard for it. In the blue riband men's singles final, Lin Dan, three-time world champion and Olympic gold medallist, had to save two match points in the final set before winning his fourth world title over the Olympic silver medallist Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia. In a fantastic match, which I watched during my coffee break, some of the rallies were simply amazing. Given what can be achieved, it's a pity that the sport is not more widely played.

Walter Blotscher