Clean sweep not on for shuttlers
Print Edition
INDONESIA and Malaysia launched a fierce Southeast Asian assault to trample on China’s dreams of repeating its London sweep of all five Olympic badminton titles at the Rio Games on Monday.
Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying landed the first blow, dumping London silver medalists Xu Chen and Ma Jin in their mixed doubles semifinal with a 21-12, 21-19 win to send Malaysian fans at the Riocentro into a frenzy.
Indonesia’s Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir then delivered the knockout punch by upsetting the reigning champions Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei 21-16 21-15 in the other semifinal.
It was a bruising day for a nation that has dominated the sport at the Olympics.
“I’m feeling really sad,” 26-year-old Zhang said, pledging to return with the team at Tokyo in 2020. “Since the last Games, I prepared so hard to defend the title and sacrificed a lot, but in the end I just didn’t play as well as I had wanted.”
The title will remain in Asian hands, however, with the gold medal decider set for today.
Typically, Asian players are well represented at the pointy end of the tournament, but the British flag was raised high over the Riocentro as rank outsiders Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis stormed into the men’s doubles semifinals.
The world No. 22 pair have had a dream run, stunning the third-ranked South Koreans in the pool round and on Monday they upset Japan’s eighth-ranked Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa 21-19, 21-17.
The Britons will play China’s Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan for a place in the final.
But the Chinese pairing of Hong Wei and Chai Biao was beaten 18-21, 17-21 by Malaysians Tan Wee Kiong and Goh V Shem in the other semifinal yesterday.
Londoner Rajiv Ouseph made the last eight of the men’s singles on Monday, edging Indonesia’s Asian champion Tommy Sugiarto 21-13, 14-21, 21-16.
In the women’s singles, Thai fourth seed Ratchanok Intanon lost to Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi 19-21, 16-21.
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