IMOGEN BANKIER, the Scottish half of the GB mixed doubles partnership with Chris Adcock, admits she is a watch fetishist.
"I have about 10," she said last night. Her favourite? "Lime green," said the daughter of Ian, Celtic football club's chairman, on the countdown to the duo's opening game on Sunday morning.
She wore it the timepiece when the pair won World silver last year and again when they beat the World No.1 Chinese pairing twice in three meetings. Now they face the same pair yet again. They stand 4-2 in career meetings, but 2-1 in their last two.
"I've worn the green Casio in tournament matches," she said. "Someone gave it to me and I wore it through the world championships in 2011, where we won silver and ever since I've worn it."
Bankier and Adcock will have to play the game of their lives if they are going to come away with a medal. But a group format, played for the first time in the Olympics, mean they could advance even if they lose the first match. The top two in the group go forward to the quarter-finals.
"I think we're really happy with the draw," Bankier said. "We're not seeded so we always knew that there was going to be a seeded team in our group so it's not the unexpected."
Adcock adds: "We are ranked 10th in the world and that is a fair reflection on how our season went but, in the same breath, we know that if we play to a good level and the crowd get behind us we can play to a top-three or four level.
"We always knew that we were going to get the Chinese. We've played them so many times over this last year. In recent times we've won two out of the last three so we are confident. If we play to a good level and the crowd can get behind us that can only help.
"The village has been an outstanding experience, being around other world-class athletes. I'm glad we've had these few days to experience the village."
The badminton squad move to Wembley today to maximise their performance and cut travel time. "We want to be as good as we can be and moving closer to our venue makes big sense," Adcock said. "It means that we can fully focus on the performance without any other distractions."
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