Robertson eyes one final swansong in London

Nathan Robertson is proving that there is life after Gail Emms after all as he and his new mixed doubles partner, Jenny Wallwork, set their sights on the London Olympics.

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The 33-year-old badminton star might be forgiven for thinking that he has achieved everything there is to in his sport with the London Games set to be his swansong.

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After all Robertson, hoping to qualify for a fourth successive Olympics, took silver with Emms in 2004 in Athens, the world gold and Commonwealth gold in 2006, and then, after Emms retired following their quarter-final exit at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Commonwealth mixed silver with Wallwork in Delhi last October, as well as a mixed men’s doubles silver.

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To cap it all Robertson also held the flag for the English team at the opening ceremony. Yet something is definitely stirring and Robertson insists he is not quite finished yet.

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“Gail was a hard act to follow but Jen’s doing a great job and is improving all the time,” he explains. “Already this year we’ve reached the final of the Swiss Open to follow on from Delhi and although we’ve dipped a little we got up to number five in the world.

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“We have the world championships in August at the Wembley Arena and, apart from it being a major tournament in its own right, it will also serve as a dry run for the Olympics staged at the same venue.

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“Our goals are simple. First ensure we are in the top 13 pairs in the world to guarantee qualification for the Games, then get into the top eight to obtain a seeding. After that, we’ll have to wait and see. Right now the prospect of us winning gold is unlikely, but it is far from impossible. The Olympics is a one-off. It all depends on who finds their best form in the week. The Koreans had the tournament of their lives in Beijing and took gold.

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“That could happen to us, especially as Jen is improving all the time. She’s already world-class now and I’m excited about how much better she will be by the London Games. I’ve won nearly everything there is to win in my sport, but in my dream scenario I will win my first Olympic gold medal in London and then call it a day.”

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The silver he achieved with Emms seven years ago has provided mixed emotions for the Spurs-supporting badminton star. The pair entered the Games with an outside chance of a medal but then came to within three points of claiming gold in a final that brought much of Britain to a standstill.

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“We weren’t fully aware of the interest back at home when we played that final, and it was a great achievement to have reached the final stage, but having gone that far our aim then was to become Olympic champions. We failed and for a year or two it really hurt, but then we won the world title in 2006 and enjoyed a period of time when we were almost unbeatable. Now I look back on Athens with a great deal of satisfaction.”

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The Robertson and Emms partnership was so successful because of their opposing characters. “Gail was feisty and attacking and I was more laid-back and controlling so together we made a perfect mix,” he says. “At our best we attacked relentlessly and opponents could never really get into their game. Beijing was sad because we both knew it would be Gail’s last tournament before settling down to have a family and losing in the quarters wasn’t the plan, but we lost to the eventual champions, as indeed I did in 2000, and in 2004 with Gail, so that’s a crumb of comfort.”

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Now Robertson, who will spend today handing out prizes at the Centre Parks National Schools Championships, is preparing for one, final hurrah at a sport which, domestically, he has made his own over the past ten years. He has reduced his commitments to just the mixed doubles for London and says that after 2012 his career will end.

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“I couldn’t imagine me wanting to raise a racquet again in anger after London and, besides, what better a way to bow out of the sport than competing at your home Olympics.”

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Except, perhaps, by winning gold.

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