British players have mounted the podium twice at the Olympics, but only in mixed doubles, with Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson taking silver at Athens in 2004, four years after Simon Archer and Joanne Goode won bronze in Sydney.
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But they will have to pick themselves up again quickly as they go again in the bronze medal match on Thursday – again against a Chinese pair of Biao Chai and Wei Hong.
Ellis and Langridge edged a tight opener before their Chinese opponents held off the Team GB duo’s comeback to sneak the second game and level at 1-1.
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He added: “We know that there are nearly no pairs in the world we can’t beat and we showed that in this tournament”. When you get to this point, you really feel like you can win this thing. “We hope we have inspired younger people to actually start playing and realise they could actually do something”. “We had a tough semi-final and they were better than us, but we knew we had a chance today”, Ellis added.
“I think it shows when you get to an Olympic tournament you can rip up the rankings because we knew, coming out here, that we could compete with everybody”.
“They had all the pressure on them and we just played free”.
“It’s just incredible, wonderful, and we can’t wait now to see him and Chris on the podium for the medal ceremony”.
“People have noticed us because we are fighters and never give up as a team”.
“We are so unsafe when we play well”.
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“This is really the answer to our prayers and he thoroughly deserves it because he has put all the hard work in over the years”.
