Ravenshead's Chris Adcock and wife Gabby have '˜unfinished business' at All England Badminton Championships

Ravenshead's Chris Adcock insists he and wife Gabby have '˜unfinished business' at the YONEX All England Badminton Championships.
Chris and Gabby AdcockChris and Gabby Adcock
Chris and Gabby Adcock

The world number seven pair will once again compete in the mixed doubles as the great and good of world badminton descend on Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena next month.

Last year saw the Adcocks enjoy their best-ever YONEX All England Badminton Championships as they reached the quarter-finals.

But rather than pat himself on the back Chris was instead disappointed not to go even further after they had chances to beat Indonesians and eventual runners-up Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir, the British number ones going down 14-21, 21-18, 19-21.

And as he gears up for another assault Chris is determined to progress even further than he did 12 months previously.

“There’s some unfinished business,” he said.

“It was slightly gutting, there was a few points where we really had a chance last year.

“We put ourselves in a really good position against a pair that had won the tournament the last three years so we were really disappointed, but we used that disappointment and it helped push us on for the rest of the year.

“We finished last year extremely strongly and we’ve started this year nicely with the national title so we want to use that momentum going into the YONEX All England.

“Hopefully we can go at least that one step further but with saying that we know each match is going to be difficult.

“We’ll take it one game at a time and hopefully we’re still in the competition at the weekend.”

The YONEX All England Badminton Championships is a key event ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

And Chris admits another crack at the Games – having lost in the first round at London 2012 while partnering Imogen Bankier – isn’t far from his thoughts.

“We have multiple peaks during the year and we can’t always be at our best,” he added. “What’s nice is that we’ve got a few peaks before the Olympics with the All England and then the European Championships.

“But what we also have is a good break after the qualification process ends, to get a good seven maybe eight weeks of training in before Rio.

“We’re going to make sure we go there in the best possible shape. This whole year will be leading up to it, but there are things that are majorly in our minds before that. Hopefully we can build confidence again and build up more momentum as we head into the summer.”

Watch the world’s best players at the YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships at Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena from 8th to 13th March.

For tickets visit allenglandbadminton.com

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