World Badminton Championships 2011 coming soon

The 2011 BWF World Championships will take place in London, offering badminton fans a sneak preview of the world’s top players in the countdown to the 2012 London Olympic Games. Hosted by BADMINTON England, the BWF World Championships will be played at the world-famous Wembley Arena from 8 -14 August, 2011.

China is currently the most successful nation in the history of the World Championships with 49 titles since 1977 (excluding 2010), but the Chinese are expected to be pushed all the way by players from Denmark, Indonesia, Korea and Malaysia. They will be joined by players from the host nation who will be out to impress ahead of the 2012 London Olympic Games. Top stars such as Nathan Robertson and Anthony Clark will lead the charge in the men’s doubles, and rising talent like Rajiv Ouseph and Andrew Smith will be battling to make their mark on home soil.

England won one gold and two silver medals at the 2006 Championships in Madrid, Spain with Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms securing the gold medal and Anthony Clark becoming one of few players in the world ever to win two medals in the same World Championships. The BWF World Championships is an annual event except in the year of the Olympics and the 2010 edition will be played in Paris, France, in August.

India beat France 4-3 in the keenly-contested first hockey Test

Paris: Ace drag-flicker Sandeep Singh nonstop his red-hot form and struck twice as India beaten France 4-3 in the keenly-contested first hockey Test at the National Institute of Sport and Expert Performance (INSEP) in Paris. India strike goals through Sandeep, who changed two penalty corners in the 12th and 65th minute, Tushar Khandker (5th) and captain Rajpal Singh (69th), at the same time as Fredric Soyez scored a hat trick (6th, 51st and 68th) for France in the first game of the three-match series on Sunday.High on confidence after their 2-0 series win over Belgium in the last week, the Indians began forcefully and nearly took the lead in the third minute but for Dharamvir Singh, who fumbled inside the circle.