In the men’s doubles there will also be a new pair winning the gold medal as Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan didn’t succeed to qualify for London. In my opinion that’s a shame not only because they lacked only 200 points in the ranking but in particular because they play badminton in a very offensive and attractive way. Nevertheless there are enough good pairs left to make it a spectacular battle.
The silver medallists of Beijing are now seeded first. Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun were world champion four times but a gold medal at the Games is still lacking. Most of the time these guys are unbeatable at World Championships but at the Olympics runner up “only”. Will they succeed to score everlasting fame this time?
Their biggest competitors and also my personal favourites are the Koreans Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung. They have played each other very often and so far the mutual results are in favour of the Koreans. In Beijing they already lost in the first round and since this is Jung’s last tournament I bet that he will do his utmost to end his impressive career in a stylish way.
For Europe there are also chances. Carsten Mogensen and Mathias Boe have shown before that they have the potential to beat anyone. For both it is their first time at the Games and this could be their only disadvantage. At least they have a good draw and they should be able to win a medal.
There are also a few outsiders to be reckoned with such as the Koreans Ko and Yo and perhaps Koo and Tan from Malaysia too. Leading up to the Games the latter pair has played only a very few tournaments because of disappointing results. They had to focus on extremely hard training supervised by the Korean twofold silver medallist  Yoo Yong Sung. Next week we will see if this strategy will pay off.
My prediction:
Gold: Lee Yong Dae/Jung Jae Sung
Silver: Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun
Bronze: Carsten Mogensen/Mathias Boe
Tags: badminton, jorrit de ruiter, London, men's doubles, Olympic Games, Olympics, preview