London 2012 Olympics: Bankier and Adcock with only pride to play for

By ANDY HAMPSON
Published on 30/07/2012 03:07

Imogen Bankier and Chris Adcock have just pride to play for at London 2012 after their medal hopes were ended by a second defeat.

The Great Britain mixed doubles pair again failed to build on a superb start against lower-ranked opposition and went down 11-21, 21-17, 21-14 to Germans Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels.

The loss followed a similar result against Russia’s Alexandr Nikolaenko and Valeria Sorokina on the opening day of competition at Wembley Arena and they now cannot progress to the quarter-finals from Group A.

The Anglo-Scottish pair had entered their first Olympics with high 
hopes after reaching the World Championship final at the same venue last year.

But while the world No 10s fed off the support of the vociferous home crowd to establish an early lead, they were unable to maintain momentum in their second outing at the Games.

The outcome renders their final group match against top seeds Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei tomorrow meaningless in terms of the competition.

Adcock said: “We got a good start again but [we’re] absolutely
gutted – really disappointed.

“We did everything we could, but that’s the Olympic Games – it can be tough.

“Devastated, obviously. We lost winnable games. We worked so hard to get here. But we’ve got one more game and we want to repay the crowd who have supported us with a win.”

The loss came early in the morning and at that point there was still a theoretical chance of progress depending on other results in the group.

That was extinguished early in the afternoon session as Zhang and Zhao overcame Nikolaenko and Sorokina 21-9, 21-18.

Bankier said: “We came into the tournament in the best shape of our lives, but faced two difficult opponents.

“Everybody wants to do well. We started well, but couldn’t keep the momentum. Unfortunately we couldn’t come back.”

Nottingham’s Adcock and Glaswegian Bankier looked quick and strong early on against the Germans, but they could not adapt when their world 
No 22 opponents slowed the pace.

Michels started to control more rallies and although the Britons showed some resilience early in the third game, the Germans edged away.

Adcock was at a loss to explain how he and Bankier allowed what became a 62-minute contest to slip from their grasp.

The 23-year-old said: “I don’t know, maybe it is something we need to 
look at.

“We started brilliantly in the first two games and then not got off to good starts in the seconds.

“Maybe it is our tactics, maybe it 
is theirs. They managed to grind back into it and get their rhythm. I’m gutted, obviously.”