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The small trouble with Superman is that he is not for real. No matter. The Chinese make life-size inflatables and sell them to the world. Or they simply boast of Super Dan, a shuttler who might not possess flying capabilities like the super-hero with a silly costume and cape, but can twist his limbs to super-human limits and not allow many shuttles in his purview to fall to the floor.
And despite his recent admissions to the tune of "Even I am human" after hitting a rare lean patch of his career in the first quarter of this year, Lin continues to get spectators to gape at him when in action. At the Siri Fort complex stadium in the final of the Badminton Asia Championships, Lin permitted himself a smile after beating junior compatriot Zhengming Yang 21-17 21-15 and pocketing the one title that had somehow never made it to his trophy cupboard.
Midway through the tournament, Lin was cornered by the media about the absence of the ABC champion tag. "But I'm the world champion," he'd said, and coolly walked off.
On Sunday, he let his left-handed smashes do the retorting back. But more that even those, it was his signature dive retrieves and quick recovery to score winners that got the crowd rooting for the favourite. Twice, he was prone on the floor one second, on his feet the next, and sending the shuttle to three different corners before going for the kill.
The big draw for the crowd is Lin's defence. He hounds the shuttle, lifts it inches from the ground, has no backhand weakness to speak of when moving with elastic mobility, and then there's the wrist unforgiving while smashing, and all rubber on the drops. In warm-up this whole week, the world No 4 didn't drop an ounce in intensity. And the only emotion he betrayed was at training, ruffling his hair in frustration when shots went wrong.
But after winning the title, Lin appeared more charged-up. "I thank the Indian crowd for supporting me," he said.
A poor run of play since December two off-colour exits and two other convincing losses at the All England and the Swiss Open meant that he'd hit perhaps his first bad patch since exiting early at the 2004 Olympics. At the East Asian Games, he fell to a Korean, and perhaps landed in India more in search of form than ABC's prized yellow metal. "I was not playing well the last two tournaments, so I'm happy with this," the 26-year-old said. "Every athlete peaks for a certain time. I can't be winning all the time," he'd said before the final.
What's left to win? China is not known to disclose plans for its top shuttlers, and Lin has maintained 2012 is still far away. But there's the Asian Games gold at year-end another title that Taufik Hidayat sneaked away from below Lin's nose in Doha last time around. "What keeps me going is to watch my fans happy," he said.
Xuerui wins women's title
Starting as a qualifier and claiming home favourite Saina Nehwal on the way, Xuerui Li climbed on the gold-medal podium after she beat her near-equal, if not her match, in Xin Liu 21-13 18-21 21-19. In a match lasting over an hour, Xuerui battled tiredness and a superior net-opponent. At a game apiece, the two Chinese players looked even. But one late burst at 20-19 was enough to send one down the line and end the exhausting battle. "It got tough in the end, but I kept belief in my abilities," said the winner.
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