HANGZHOU: China dominated the Asian Games individual badminton competition when they sensationally swept three gold medals tonight.
China had earlier won the men's team gold medal to take their tally in badminton to four.
Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong and Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan retained their mixed and women's doubles gold medals while Li Shifeng was the winner of the men's singles event.
The hosts had the best possible start today in the opening match between the top two seeds, China's Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong and Japan's Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino.
While the match could have gone either way, today was to be Siwei-Yaqiong's day. They brought out their entire arsenal and fired away right from the start. They went on to claim victory and the gold with a 21-15, 21-14 win.
Even before the men's singles final started, China were already celebrating a second gold. It was left to Li Shifeng and Shi Yuqi to fight it out.
Shifeng snatched the first set 23-21. He was clearly the hungrier of the two tonight and pressed on to win 21-13 and claim the prestigious gold.
Qingchen-Yifan were determined to make up for their loss in the team final to
Baek Hana-Lee Sohee from Korea. They won the first set 21-18 and were initially struggling in the second. To their credit the Chinese world No. 1 pair clawed their way back to win 21-17 and mir importantly retain the gold they won in 2018.
China's hopes of equaling their best ever performance at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing was not to be as Chen Yufei could not get past world No. 1 An Se Young who won 21-18, 17-21, 21-8.
It was frantic game with Se Young the early aggressor, but she sustained an injury in the second set and Yufei went on to level the score. But Se Young bounced back and with Yufei picking up an injury, surged ahead and took the gold.
The men's doubles, the only final not involving players from China, was a high energy smashing battle which Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty took charge of and claimed a historic first-ever badminton gold medal for India. They defeated Korea's Choi Sol Gyu-Kim Won Ho 21-18, 21-16.
FINAL RESULTS
Mixed Doubles
Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong (China) by Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino (Japan) 21-15, 21-14.
Men's Doubles
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty (India) bt Choi Sol Gyu-Kim Won Ho (Korea) 21-18, 21-16
Men's Singles
Li Shifeng (China) bt Shi Yuqi (China) 23-21, 21-13
Women's Doubles Final Result
Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan (China) bt Baek Hana-Lee Sohee (Korea) 21-18, 21-17
Women's Singles
An Se Young (Korea) bt Chen Yufei (China) 21-18, 17-21, 21-8
