The Official Olympic Badminton Draw Released Today

The draw the badminton competition was held at the Main Press Centre in the Olympic Park earlier today.  In the women's singles draw, world champion and number one seed Wang Yihan of China will face the unseeded Michelle Li of Canada in her opening match of the Games.

In the men's singles, Olympic champion and number two seed Lin Dan of China will face unseeded Scott Evans of Ireland in his first match of the competition. Number one seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia will play Finland's Ville Lang, who progressed to the third round at Beijing 2008.

Third seed Chen Long of China drew Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand, who is in good form after winning the Singapore Open in June, while number four seed, China's Chen Jin, will play Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland. In the mixed doubles, top seeds Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei of China will face Great Britain's medal hopefuls Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier in the group stage of the tournament.

Adcock and Bankier were runners-up to Zhang and Zhao at the 2011 world championships at Wembley Arena, but the British pair have since beaten their Chinese opponents twice in three meetings. 

In the men's doubles, the Beijing 2008 Olympic silver medallists, four-times world champions and number one seeds Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng of China, should progress to the knockout stage after they were drawn with pairings from Australia, Chinese Taipei and Germany.

On the other side of the draw, number two seeds Chung Jae Sung and Lee Yong Dae of Korea will feature alongside 2005 world champions Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan of the USA, Malaysian battlers Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong, and Japan's Naoki Kawamae and Shoji Sato.

In the women's doubles, China will be seeking their fifth consecutive Olympic title from their top pairing, world champions and number one seeds Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang.

Olympics Security Guards Told To Check Their Attitudes This Summer

The London Olympics news feeds are buzzing, as preparation for the 2012 games moves into high gear.  Organizers have issued a warning to the firm in charge of training the private security guards manning venues at  for this summer's games, advising against exhibiting over-zealous behaviour that might alienate sports fans.
Opening day of a major event can be tense, as the start of the Olympic torch relay demonstrated this week when a police security team escorting the runners grabbed a spectator they thought was trying to reach the torchbearer and pushed him into a hedge.

Mark Hamilton, the man leading G4S's Olympic security team which will operate airport-style searches and screening at venues, said guards were being encouraged to engage with spectators.  "I think it is very relevant not to over-react to situations that arise on the first day - to make sure they are properly assessed and that the communications process is working in the way it should so that the decisions are made at the right time and people act in the right way," the managing director told reporters.

He said guards had to be thorough but it should not be an "onerous experience" for fans. He suggested guards may have acted over-the-top when stopping photographers taking pictures from a public path of a vehicle checking area in the Olympic Park.  "There's no doubt that's a lesson learnt, not to overly criticize the workforce and the guards involved because they are operating under a regime where hostile reconnaissance is something they have to be aware of," he said.

"How they handle that, and how they manage it and how they report it is obviously something we've learnt a lesson from."   G4S guards can also check vehicles, such as buses, travelling through the Olympic Park in east London.  More than 100,000 people applied for one of the 10,400 temporary jobs in what G4S describes as one of the biggest paid recruitment drives in Britain this century.  G4S will recruit, train and coordinate the guards, in addition to managing 3,300 students and 3,000 volunteers.

As well as screening at entry, guards will be responsible for crowd management and protecting the perimeters and equipment.  The London Olympic organising committee (LOCOG) was forced to renegotiate its contract with G4S at the end of last year after the committee more than doubled the number of people needed from an early estimate of 10,000 to 23,700.