Overtaken by world No. 1, Lee So-hee-Baek Hana miss out on silver in Hangzhou

World No. 2 badminton women’s doubles pair Lee So-hee (Incheon International Airport) and Baek Ha-na (MG Sae-mae Village Bank) have won a silver medal at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games.

Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na lost 0-2 (18-21 17-21) to world No. 1 Tian Qing-tian and Zhai Fan (CHN) in the women’s badminton doubles final on Sunday at Binjiang Gymnasium in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na, who won the women’s team gold medal on the first day of the Games, failed to complete the double.

Their dream of becoming the first Korean duo to win the women’s doubles title at an Asian Games in 21 years, since Lee Kyung-won and Ra Kyung-min at the 2002 Busan Games, also came to an end.

Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na, who were runners-up to Chen Qing-tian and Zhao Zifan in the final of the China Open last month, came into the day’s action with a boost of confidence after defeating Chen Qing-tian and Zhao Zifan 2-0 in the women’s team final, but they were left to rue the loss as they came from behind in both the first and second games. They now have a 3-4 record against their opponents.

Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na looked to be in trouble early in game one when they lost a very long rally that lasted more than 100 points to tie the score at 4-3, but Lee and Baek reeled off six straight points with a mix of steady strokes, drop shots, and sharp smashes to take a 10-4 lead. A diagonal smash found the corner to take an 11-6 lead into the interval, but Lee and Baek were chased down by their heavily-attacked opponents, who broke back to 13-14. After a back-and-forth seesaw game, Lee was unable to get over the hump at 18-18 and lost the first game.

In game two, Lee and Baek Hana used clever strokes to jump out to a 5-0 lead and regain the momentum. Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na fought off the chasing Chen Qing-tian and Zaifan to go into the interval with an 11-8 lead, but a line judgment error allowed them to fall back to 11-12, and they fought back to tie the game at 16-16 before conceding two consecutive points to win the match 스포츠토토.

Meanwhile, Korea Badminton, which won the women’s team gold and the men’s team bronze, won the silver medal in the women’s singles with Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life) still to play and the men’s doubles with Choi Sol-gyu (Yonex) and Kim Won-ho (Samsung Life), and the bronze medals in the mixed doubles with Seo Seung-jae (Samsung Life) and Chae Yu-jung (Incheon International Airport) and the women’s doubles with Kim So-young (Incheon International Airport) and Gong Hee-yong (Jeonbuk Bank).