Taipei, Oct. 6 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton duo Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) have won a bronze medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou after losing their semifinal match to a South Korea duo a day after defeating the world No. 1 team from Indonesia.
Lee and Wang, who won gold in the men's doubles in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but are currently ranked 12th in the world, seemed poised to vie for gold after toppling the top-ranked Indonesian duo of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto on Thursday 21-19, 21-18.
The two Taiwanese have felt under the weather the past few days, however, and they were unable to keep up with the world No. 15 duo of Choi Solgyu and Kim Wonho on Friday, falling to the South Koreans 21-12, 21-10 in just 33 minutes.
Despite the loss, they still won a bronze medal because the two losers of semifinals in badminton do not have to play an additional match for third place.
In Friday's semifinal showdown, Lee and Wang trailed only 11-8 and 9-7 at the start of the two games, but were then steamrolled in the second half of each game by the Koreans.
Their medal will be the only badminton medal Taiwan wins after capturing one gold, one silver and two bronze in the sport at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and a gold and a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
World No. 4 Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎), Taiwan's biggest medal hope, was upset in the women's singles round of 16 by world No. 20 Aya Ohori of Japan 21-16, 21-14.
