China

Zhou needs points to play for HK in 2008

By Guan Xiaomeng (Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-04-26 16:10

Earlier this year China's former world number one shuttler Zhou Mi joined the Hong Kong team in hopes of competing in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, but the Athens Olympic bronze winner needs to accumulate points from tournaments to secure a spot in the Games.

Zhou Mi,former famous Chinese National badminton team player competes in a match. The former world No.1 needs to collect points to qualify for the 2008 Olympics Games representing Hong Kong Special Adminstration Region.

"If Zhou gets the necessary number of tournament points for an Olympic berth before the Games and also is approved by the Chinese Badminton Association, she will be allowed to play for Hong Kong in 2008," said Liu Fengyan, deputy director of China's small-ball sports administration on Wednesday.

Zhou, 28, left the national team in 2005 due to lingering injuries.

When the China's former leading player announced her decision to play for Hong Kong, she became another homegrown athlete to pose threat to China's hopes for gold in future competitions.

Her decision to move to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region angered chief coach Li Yongbo last summer, when rumors of Zhou's possible transfer to Malaysia surfaced.

"She should know who [China] cultivated her into a top player," Li said. "She should know the seriousness of her decision. If she chooses to play for another nationality, she will harm national interests."

Hong Kong is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). After the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, it is still qualified to participate in the Olympics in the name of Chinese Hong Kong. But Hong Kong's Olympic medals are not counted as medals for China.

But Li has softened her views on his former player. "If Zhou plays for Hong Kong, it will be all right as players from both sides are Chinese," he said last year.

Zhou was not the first to leave her original team. Wang Chen, also a former Chinese national player had a fall out with the team in 1999 because she was dropped from China's Uber Cup line-ups that year. Wang won the women's singles title at last year's Asian Games when she represented Hong Kong, knocking out China's world number one Xie Xingfang in quarter-finals.

According to IOC rules, an athlete is not allowed to play for a new team delegation at international games for three years starting from the last time he or she played for the former delegation.

However, Wang managed to play for Hong Kong in the 2004 Athens Games, even though she had not finished waiting out the three years of the transition after she left Chinese national team.

"She (Wang) played at Athens because the Chinese Olympic Committee allowed her," Liu explained of her special circumstances.
"But the point now is whether Zhou is able to earn the demanded points," Liu added, hinting the association would surely give her green light. "But she had not earned any single point since 2006."