Olympic badminton results August 19: Carolina Marin, China win gold
By John Buhler
Day 9 of Olympic badminton saw Spain’s Carolina Marin win gold in the Women’s Singles and China defeat Malaysia in the Men’s Doubles for Olympic gold.
Day 9 of Olympic badminton at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil saw seven medals awarded in two event finals: the Women’s Singles and the Men’s Doubles. On Thursday, Great Britain’s Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge earned their bronze medals in the Men’s Doubles, but had to await the finals between Malaysia’s Goh V. Shem and Tan Wee Kiong versus China’s Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan to receive their Olympic medals.
Friday also saw the Men’s Singles Semifinals in action and the completion of the Women’s Singles Finals. Advancing to the finals on the men’s side were Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei and China’s Chen Long. They’ll face each other in the Men’s Singles Finals on Saturday morning. Competing for the bronze medal will be China’s Lin Dan and Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen.
Winning gold in the Women’s Singles Finals was top-seeded Carolina Marin of Spain. She knocked off India’s V. Sindhu Pusarla, 2-1 after dropping the first set 21-19. Marin would rally to beat Pusarla in back-to-back sets 21-12 and 21-15 to bring home Olympic gold to Spain in the Women’s Singles.
Earning the bronze medal in the Women’s Singles was Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, who defeated China’s Li Xuerui by virture of Li pulling out of the bronze medal match on account of a knee injury suffered in the her semifinals loss to Marin on Thursday. It’s a tough blow for Li and China to get so close to medalling but having to pull out at the last minute because an injury. Either way, it is another medal for Japan this Summer Olympics and Olympic bronze for Okuhara.
MEDAL RESULT | Women's Singles
The last match of the day between the Men’s Doubles finalists China and Malaysia did not disappoint. This might have been the most exciting badminton match of any of the five tournaments so far: China’s Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan versus Malaysia’s Goh V. Shem and Tan Wee Kiong.
China was able to win back-to-back sets over Malaysia to win the Men’s Doubles gold medal, 2-1. Malaysia came out strong winning the first set, 21-16. China came back with a better effort in the second set, winning that 21-11. Then things got interesting.
In the pivotal third set, China and Malaysia went back and forth for 29 minutes. With the third set tied at 21, China was able to eke out the crucial two points to go ahead of Malaysia, winning the third set 23-21 en route to Olympic gold in the Men’s Doubles.
MEDAL RESULT | Men's Doubles
With four of the five Olympic badminton events all sorted out, there are only three medals left to be earned on the final day of the badminton action at Riocentro. Will it be Malaysia’s Lee or China’s Chen to take home Olympic gold? Who will earn the bronze medal: China’s Lin or Denmark’s Axelsen. Find out all that and more in the final day of Olympic badminton on Saturday morning in Rio de Janeiro.