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Guatemalan Cordón falls in badminton semis, goes for bronze

Guatemalan Kevin Cordón’s surprising march on badminton at the Olympic Games came to a halt on Sunday when he succumbed 21-18, 21-11 to Danish Viktor Axelsen in the semifinals.

Cordón still retains the bronze medal option. The current number 59 in the world rankings will try to get on the podium on Monday when he faces the Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, fifth seed of Tokyo 2020, who lost 21-16, 21-11 against the Chinese Long Chen, sixth.

“Right now I’m not thinking about the bronze medal,” said Cordón, 33. “I have to analyze what I did well and what I did wrong in this game. This afternoon or tonight I will have to think about how to play tomorrow and be calm. I don’t want to think about the medal ”.

Cordón, 34, is playing his fourth Olympic Games. Their best previous performance was reaching the knockout stages at London 2012.

But he ruined the odds by leaving behind several rivals who surpassed him in ranking to get into the fight for the medals.

To catch the bronze, Cordon would give Guatemala its second Olympic medal. The other is Erick Barrondo’s silver in the 20-kilometer march in 2012.

Cordon managed to get up 16-14 in the first heat against Axelsen, number two in the ranking and world champion in 2017. The Dane eventually took the handle and closed the duel in 40 minutes.

“We had never faced each other so he didn’t know how to play against me,” Cordón said. “At the beginning, he only moved seeing how I was going to plan the game.”

“It is difficult to play against him. Is tall. Attacks very well. I wanted to play close to the net, but he is faster than me, “he added.

He regretted missing the first set.

“We were 18-18 and I took the risk of trying to play faster than him and trying to attack with my smash. But I made mistakes and I couldn’t win the set, ”he said. “In the second I did not have the patience to control or stay in the exchanges.”

Axelsen and Cordón embraced on the net and the Dane said that he congratulated the Central American for his campaign in the tournament.

“It was the big surprise. A nice story and I wish you all the best. It’s good that badminton has these kinds of surprises and that players like Kevin can stand out, ”said Axelsen.

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