Lee So-hee (left) and Baek Hana won the women’s doubles championship at the 2024 Asian Individual Championships. Provided by Korea Badminton Federation
Korean badminton showed hope of winning a gold medal at the Paris Olympics. The second-ranked women’s doubles pair, Lee So-hee (Incheon International Airport) and Baek Hana (MG Saemaeul Geumgo), won the prestigious tournament in a row.
The pair of Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na reached the top after defeating China’s Zhang Shuixian and Zheng Wei (ranked 7th) 2-0 (23-21, 21-12) in the women’s doubles final of the 2024 Asian Individual Championships held in Ningbo, China on the 14th. . It has been 19 years since the Korean women’s doubles pair won this tournament, since the pair of Lee Kyung-won (current national team coach) and Lee Hyo-jeong in 2005.
The team of Lee So-hee and Baek Hana took the lead from the beginning of the first game, and gradually widened the score gap. 18-9, 9 points ahead. However, they conceded 7 consecutive goals, allowing them to catch up and even allow a comeback. In this situation, they tied the score at 21-21 and took it to a deuce match, scoring two points first to take one game.
The pair of Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na, who took the lead in a close match, scored 3 consecutive points at 11-10 in the second set, and after giving up 1 point, scored 5 consecutive points again to run away with 19-11. Unlike game 1, they scored 21 points while giving up only 1 more point.
The pair of Lee So-hee and Baek Hana also reached the top at the ‘Badminton Wimbledon’ All England Open held in March. They have won two consecutive championships so far, raising expectations for the Paris Olympics.
Lee So-hee (left) and Baek Hana won the women’s doubles championship at the 2024 Asian Individual Championships. Provided by Korea Badminton Federation
Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance), ranked No. 1 in the women’s singles rankings and considered the top candidate for the Korean national team’s Olympic gold medal, lost to He Bing-jiao (China) in the quarterfinals of this tournament. It has been about two years since the semifinals of the Indonesia Open in June 2022. Ahn Se-young also failed to win her gold medal, losing to Akane Yamaguchi (Japan) in the semifinals of the All England Open. The aftereffects of the injury still linger. In this situation, the pair of Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na are approaching the Olympics at a brisk pace.
Meanwhile, Seo Seung-jae (Samsung Life Insurance) and Chae Yu-jeong (Incheon International Airport), who participated in the mixed doubles, lost 1-2 (21-13, 15-21, 14-21) to China’s Feng Yanze and Huang Dongping, failing to challenge for the championship.
Reporter Ahn Hee-soo [email protected]
2024-04-14 23:01:01
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