Olympic badminton results August 20th: Chen Long wins Men’s Singles
By John Buhler
Olympic badminton ended its final day with Malaysia’s top seed Lee Chong Wei being upset in the Men’s Singles Finals over No. 2 seed Chen Long from China.
After 10 days of Olympic badminton at Riocentro for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, all five of the sports’ events have been completed with Malaysia’s No. 1 seed Lee Chong Wei being upset by China’s No. 2 seed Chen Long in the Mens’ Singles Finals in back-to-back sets.
The first of the two Olympic badminton matches on Saturday morning was the bronze medal match between China’s Lin Dan and Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen. Lin had been a presumed favorite to reach the Men’s Singles Finals with Lee from the start of the tournament, but a No. 3 seed in the Round of 16 made a collision course with Lee in the finals impossible.
They ran into each other in the Men’s Singles Semifinals where Lin couldn’t match the No. 1 seed in Lee. Understandably let down by a tough loss in the semifinals, Lin might have overlooked his opponent in the tournament’s No. 4 seed in Axelsen.
As Lin stumbled down the stretch of the tournament, Axelsen played his best badminton. Lin took the first set in the bronze medal match 21-15. Axelsen didn’t panic and instead won the last two sets, 21-10 and 21-17, to defeat Lin for Olympic bronze.
After having to wait a little longer than expected on account of the bronze medal match going into an extra set, Lee seemed phased by this, as Chen was able to overpower him in back-to-back sets to win Olympic gold in the Men’s Singles Finals.
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Chen won the first set 21-18 and the second set 21-18. Though he was the No. 2 seed in the Men’s Singles tournament, nobody outside of Chen himself thought that anybody was going to knock off Malaysia’s Lee in the finals.
MEDAL RESULT | Men's Singles
China was guaranteed to medal in the Men’s Singles on Saturday morning. While many expected two medals, a silver from Chen and a bronze from Lin, China should be pleased that one of its countrymen was able to win Olympic gold in the Men’s Singles in the final day of Olympic badminton.