NEW DELHI: It was a red-letter day for shuttlers from France on Sunday.
First, it was mixed doubles combination of Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue, who outlasted World No 1 pairing of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping 22-20, 19-21, 21-15 to capture the country's first ever gold in the history of the World Championships.
Barely an hour or so later, Alex Lanier followed suit. Lanier muscled past the helpless Kodai Naraoka 21-11, 21-11 in 50 minutes to clinch the men's title at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
It's a monumental shift as this is also Europe's first double gold after 1983. Danish men's pair of Steen Fladberg and Jesper Helledie and mixed doubles pairing of Thomas Kihlstrom (Sweden) and Nora Perry (England) were the last players to power Europe to two titles in the coveted meet.
Their celebrations said it all. As soon as Lanier had the match in the bag, the French team were quick to pop the champagne bottle. It was something that the French had dreamt for a long time and they were naturally overwhelmed by their unreal feat.
"It's an amazing moment for us. It was the goal, but to achieve it, it's something else. So we feel really proud and really happy to be on top of the podium today," Delphine said.
Lanier's follow-up act was a masterclass. He had a clear purpose. It was not just a world title on the line for him. "I didn't feel that I won for me, today, compared to the days before, or yesterday where I felt it was definitely for me. Today, it was the day for France. And when the mixed, they won, everyone was happy, and I just thought that I needed to give them a double — double smile, double moments and I needed to make history again," the 21-year-old, who believes his good physique is down to the good genes thanks to his pro sailor parents, said.
Seismic performance? Yes. Inspiring? Certainly. Surprising? Not really.
With some significant victories in the circuit over the last few years, some of the French shuttlers had been making waves on the BWF circuit in the last few years. Besides Lanier, Thom-Dephine, there are the Popov brothers — they couldn't play to their potential in this campaign — who have also gradually become a formidable force at the highest level.
Earlier this year, the French men's team had captured the Thomas Cup silver.
In order to compete with some of the powerhouses, France started a process to have as many players as possible in the top-30, according to Cyrille Gombrowicz, the technical director of France badminton. He said they had sowed the seeds way back in 1980.
"Well, the process started a long time ago. In 1980, we started the process to produce the performance (centre) in France. It was the first national centre. Before that, it was just the club. Later, we built two other national centers for the young players, and later on, we got nine regional centers for the youngest. And also, we started working with 60 clubs, approximately, around the country," Gombrowicz recalled.
Thom and Delphine are the products of the system in place. They joined the national centre as promising talents. Over the last decade or so, they gradually got more and more experience, getting wins at different levels, evolving to become a real force of mixed doubles. "We were a good group when we were young, we won a lot in Europe. The federation put more money for us to be better. That helped us to grow. Now the sport is highly professional," Delphine said.
Now, the process also involves grooming high-level coaches, putting emphasis on using data and also special training/competition programmes for elite players.
Having said that, badminton is still way behind when compared to football and other popular sports in France. "Nobody will be waiting for us," Thom said in jest, before adding, "it's not like football or basketball." But he's hopeful that more will take up the racquet sport in the days to come.
"We're really good at so many sports. I hope more people will start following us, it will be amazing," he said.