Scott Evans begins his quest for glory in the men’s singles Badminton today with a match against Germany’s Marc Zwiebler.
The 28-year-old will be hoping to snap his record of two losses from his opening matches at the Olympic Games.
The Dubliner lost to Lin Dan, the eventual winner at London 2012. He also tasted defeat to his upcoming opponent Zwiebler, in 2008.
Evans became the first Irishman ever to compete at Olympic level at the Beijing games that summer.
Regardless of what happens he is proud of making it to the games for the third time:
“Olympics is definitely the biggest thing you can be a part of in our sport, for me to be representing Ireland again for the third time it’s going to be a fantastic couple of weeks in Rio”
Evans is based in Denmark and has been working hard ahead of the games, he began training weeks before the Danes started their preparations for the games.
The Dubliner was determined to travel to Brazil in the shape of his life:
“I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself now to get in the best shape as possible and I really want to make a good result in Rio because obviously losing in Beijing first round and in London first round is not what you want to do at the Olympics”.
Evans has high hopes for the Olympic Games. His opponent today Marc Zweibler is ranked 14th in the World the Dundrum native is Ireland’s number one, and is ranked 72nd by the BWF.
Victory against the German on Thursday will present him with a great chance of making the last 16.
Evans’ second game is against Ygor Coelho De Oliveira for a place in the last 16 and he feels the draw is not as challenging as previous years:
“I would say I have a great chance of getting out of the group and then you go into the last 16, at that stage in the Olympics anything can happen.”
“If I’ve performed well and won the two games in the group, I’ll be playing well and have a lot of confidence and anything can happen.”
“Last 16 would be a good result; the quarter-finals in the Olympics would be a good result.”
