South Korea won the gold medal in the women’s badminton team event at the 19th Asian Games on Sunday for the first time in nearly 30 years.
South Korea defeated China 3-0 in the team competition final, which involves three single matches and two doubles, at Binjiang Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China.
It is South Korea’s first Asian Games title since 1994, when the country beat Indonesia for the first-ever gold in the final at the Hiroshima Asiad.
South Korea had settled for silver behind China at the 1998, 2002 and 2014 Asiads.
In the previous 2018 Asian Games, the South Korean women’s team was eliminated in the quarterfinals after a loss to host Indonesia, who took the top podium after China.
Reigning world badminton champion An Se-young routed Chen Yufei, the gold medalist in the women’s singles at the Tokyo Olympics, in the opening singles match 2-0 (21-12, 21-13) on her superb drop shots and lifts.
A doubles win by the team of Lee So-hee and Baek Hana gave South Korea a 2-0 advantage. The duo shut ou
t the world No. 1 doubles team of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan.
In the third singles game, No. 18 Kim Ga-eun upset China’s He Bingjiao, the fifth-highest singles player in the world rankings, in straight sets to seal the 3-0 victory for South Korea.
“I’m happy that my hard work and studying were rewarded,” An said after the first game. “I felt good that my first-game win helped my team get off to a good start in the best-of-three team competition.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency