China’s world No. 1 Lin Dan clinched gold in the Olympic badminton yesterday, outclassing Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei and avenging his first round loss in Athens four years ago.
World champion Lin produced a silky smooth performance that left second seed Lee hopelessly out-gunned, winning 21-12, 21-8 and sparking wild celebrations from the packed Chinese crowd.
The loss was heartbreak for the mild-mannered Lee and for Malaysia which had been counting on their champion to deliver the country’s first ever Olympic gold in any sport.
PHOTO: AFP
But with the weight of a nation on his shoulders, Lee made a series of costly errors in the first game as Lin, with a packed Chinese crowd screaming their support, produced brilliant badminton.
Lee clawed his way back in the first, but Lin held his nerve, aggressively attacking the net to wrap up the first game.
Lin, the back-to-back world champion, raced to a 7-0 lead before Lee started to chip away as Lin, sensing victory, made several mistakes. But the Chinese star, who has been the world No. 1 for most of the last four years, then steadied and stormed to victory.
China’s Chen Jin won bronze after he defeated South Korea’s champion Lee Hyunil in the play-off.
Earlier, South Korea’s Lee Hyo-jung and Lee Yong-dae won the gold medal in the mixed doubles, defeating Indonesia’s Liliyana Natsir and Nova Widianto in straight sets.
The unseeded South Koreans defeated the top-seeded Indonesians 21-11, 21-17.
It was South Korea’s third medal of the Olympic badminton tournament.
China’s Yu Yang and He Hanbin won the bronze medal with a 21, 21-17, 23-21 win over Indonesia’s Flandy Limpele and Vita Marissa.
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka yesterday got her season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after the UK’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue, while in Brisbane, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Wu Fang-hsien crashed out of the women’s doubles. In Perth, despite Osaka’s win, the UK took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory. Osaka was too strong for reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines. “I’m proud of how I fought,” Osaka said. “I’d never played here, it was tough.” Britain
RSS