British badminton hope knocked out of Olympics

LONDON - British badminton hope Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier were knocked out of the London Oympic Games after their second loss in the mix doubles group stage on Sunday.

The same to their yesterday's opening loss to Alexandr Nikolaenko and Valeria Sorokina of Russia, Adcock and Bankier had a better start when facing Germany's Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels.

However the runners-up at last year's world championships lost their form in the following two sets, seeing their Olympic bid end in an 11-21, 21-17, 21-14 defeat to the Germany's world No. 25.

"We got a good start again but absolutely gutted; really disappointed. We did everything we could today. But that's the Olympic Games; it can be tough," Adcock said.

"Devastated. Obviously...we lost winnable games. We worked so hard to get here. We've got one more game and we want to repay the crowd who have supported us with a win."

Last August at the same venue Wembley Arena, Adcock and Bankier produced a string of brilliant results only to be denied in the final by world No. 1 Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei of China at the world championships.

One year later, the pair will face the Chinese powerhouses again in the final group match on Tuesday, but the two losses means they cannot reach the quarter-finals even though they defeat the Chinese top seeds.

"The match against the Chinese is still important for us. We've had great support and we don't want to let them down," Adcock said.

"It's a rematch of the world (championships) final so if anything can motivate you it's that. Hopefully we can go home knowing we gave it our all."