By Paul Majendie (Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-12 21:18

KUALA LUMPUR - After a clean sweep in all five events at the 1987 world badminton championships, China had never repeated such a feat again. In 2006, China lifted four titles, only missing the target in mixed doubles. Now, China is making the second charge in the 16th edition slated from August 13 to 19.

Flight delay of about two hours on Thursday could not delay Chinese badminton team's solid preparation for the coming worlds.

Though China had only two weeks to prepare for the championships, head coach Li Yongbo still believed on Sunday his team was ready for the worlds, both physically and mentally.

Lin Dan, world No. 1 men's singles shuttler and the defending world champion, looked set to reclaim the title but in a moderate way, saying that he will meet tough challenges from Taufik Hidayat and Lee Chong Wei.

23-year-old Lin has failed to win any titles in Malaysia. He lost twice in 2005 and 2006 Malaysian Open, both to Lee Chong Wei. And in 2007 Malaysian Open, he bowed to Park Sung-hwan of South Korea.

"You can not say Malaysia is not my lucky place just according to my previous performances here," said Lin.

China tries to maintain its supremacy in women's singles. World No. 1 and 2 Zhang Ning and Xie Xingfang have well tuned for the tourney.

"Before our arrival, I was down in form but now I feel much better," said Xie, Lin's girl friend and defending world champion.

In her half of the draw, Xie's threat mainly comes from teammates Zhu Lin, Lu Lan and Malaysian Wong Mew Choo.

"They have good footwork. I should be more patient," Xie added.

Enjoying a bye in the first round as second seed, Xie will meet either Yoana Martinez of Spain or Ana Moura of Portugal in the second round.

China bet their winning hope of men's doubles on defending champion Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng, who, ended China's 18 years' gold drought in the event on world stage in 2006 Madrid world champs.

18 years ago, Li Yongbo and Tian Bingyi clinched the first men's doubles world champion for China.

As for women's doubles, Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen, re-paired after months' separation due the adoption of 21 point system, which exposed Zhang's weak point in defence. She was eventually replaced with Zhao Tingting.

However, Yang and Zhao's performance was far from satisfactory and they lost to Indonesian duo Vita Marissa and Lilyana Natsir in China Masters in Chengdu in July. The Chinese team decided to give Zhang's a chance at the worlds.

Yang and Zhang are not sure if they can reclimb the peak when they crowned in the Athens Olympics.

"We have only trained six times before we came here," said Zhang.

Apart from the pair, Zhang Yangwen and Wei Yili, as well as Gao Ling and Huang Sui, top and second seeds respectively, resume more responsibility to win the gold.

Gao Ling and Zheng Bo, world No. 1 and top seeds, are regarded as a miracle since they only began to pair in 2006 Asian Games and they have won six titles.

"Our arch rival are Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson of England in top section of draw," Zheng said.

Their challenge from bottom section might come from teammates Zhang Yawen and Xie Zhongbo, and Lilyana Natsir and Nova Widianto of Indonesia.

In 2006, two English pairs, Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms, Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg came out champions and runner-ups in Madrid.