Olympic badminton results August 16: China wins bronze in Mixed Doubles
By John Buhler
Olympic badminton saw its first medal awarded on Tuesday night with China’s Zhang Nen and Zhao Yunlei win the bronze medal in mixed doubles.
Day 6 of Olympic badminton saw four women advance to the women’s singles semifinals, two teams in women’s doubles and men’s doubles advance to the finals, and China win the bronze medal in mixed doubles.
Advancing to the women’s singles semifinals were Spain’s Carolina Marin, China’s Li Xuerui, India’s V. Sindhu Pusarla, and Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara. Marin, the top seed in the women’s singles bracket will face Li in the women’s singles semifinals. Okuhara and Pusarla won in upsets and will meet each other on the other side of the bracket in the women’s singles semifinals on Thursday morning.
Japan’s Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi will face Denmark’s Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl for Olympic gold on Thursday morning. South Korea’s Jung Kyung-Eun and Shin Seung-Chan will face China’s Tang Yuanting and Yu Yang for the bronze medal in Olympic badminton’s women’s doubles on Thursday morning.
In the men’s doubles semifinals, advancing for a chance at Olympic gold on Friday morning will be Malaysia’s Goh V. Shem and Tan Wee Kiong. The Malaysian team will face China’s Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan. For the bronze medal up for grabs on Friday morning, it will be between China’s Chai Biao and Hong Wei and Great Britain’s Marcus Ellis and Chris Landridge.
In a bronze medal match between two Chinese teams in mixed doubles, it was Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei that topped fellow countrymen Xu Chen and Ma Jin, 2-0 to bring a bronze medal home to China. Zhang and Zhao won the first set off Xu and Ma 21-7, and the second set 21-11.
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Though China did end up taking home bronze in mixed doubles, it wasn’t a particularly close match, with Zhang and Zhao clobbering Xu and Ma in back-to-back sets. While China will likely end up winning a ton of medals in Olympic badminton during the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, it won’t take home either gold or silver in mixed doubles, as that event will be decided on Wednesday between Indonesia and Malaysia.