The 2017 World Championships for Badminton are over and the Chinese have finished top once again. China won two gold, two silver and three bronze medals to finish ahead of Japan, who had their best showing in 40 years.
The first edition of the Worlds was held in 1977, when the Japanese won their first and only gold medal till 2017, where they won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals for their best ever finish.
India, too, incidentally, recorded their best ever return at the Championships, finishing fifth with a tally of one bronze and one silver. This took their total tally to seven, a haul that started with Prakash Padukone winning a bronze in the men’s singles competition, way back in 1983.
The country had to wait till 2011 to win another medal when Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa won the bronze in the women’s doubles. They have won a medal at every Championships since, and Glasgow 2017 was the first time that India won two medals.
The bronze won in 2011 also remains the sole Indian medal in the doubles category. Saina Nehwal won the country’s first silver medal in 2015, when she finished runner-up to Carolina Marin in the women’s singles.
China’s tally of 63 gold medals and 174 total medals is unmatched, with Indonesia next with 22 gold and 73 overall. However, the Southeast Asians have seen a steady decline in the number of golds they have won, with 4 golds in the last seven Championships, as compared to 12 golds they had won in the nine previous Championships, between 1993 and 2007.
Denmark and South Korea are the only other nations to have won more than 10 golds. Ten nations have won gold medals, including Thailand and United States which have won one gold each. A gold for India at these Championships would have seen them propelled to ninth in the overall table, but for the moment, they lie in 12th with two silver and three bronze medals.