May 02, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1429

LONDON, May 1: China, winner of four of the five Olympic badminton golds in Sydney and three in Athens, could emulate those feats on home ground in Beijing after publication on Thursday of the latest world rankings.

These are the ratings that have decided which players will be invited to the Olympic tournament in August.

Chinese names abound, headed in the men’s singles by world champion Lin Dan.

Lin is one of three Chinese in the top four and victory in his home country would help erase bitter memories of Athens in 2004 when he lost in the first round to an outsider.

World rankings:

Men’s singles: 1 Lin Dan (China) 85,375 points; 2 Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia) 81,834; 3 Bao Chunlai (China) 68,960; 4 Chen Jin (China); 61,430; 5 Kenneth Jonassen (Denmark) 60,527; 6 Sony Dwi Kuncoro (Indonesia) 57,240; 7 Taufik Hidayat (Indonesia) 56,528; 8 Peter Gade (Denmark) 54,151; 9 Boonsak Ponsana (Thailand) 50,963; 10 Park Sung-hwan (South Korea) 50,205.

Women’s singles: 1 Xie Xingfang (China) 79,562; 2 Zhang Ning (China) 71,759; 3 Lu Lan (China) 68,490; 4 Zhu Lin (China) 67,400; 5 Chen Wang (Hong Kong) 64,787; 6 Pi Hongyan (France) 62,706; 7 Tine Rasmussen (Denmark) 61,931; 8 Xu Huaiwen (Germany) 59,778; 9 Mi Zhou (Hong Kong) 55,280; 10 Wong Mew Choo (Malaysia) 54,428.—Reuters