Lee So-hee, Baek Hana win women's doubles gold in badminton
Lee So-hee, right, and Baek Hana of South Korea play against Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning of China in the women's doubles badminton final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium in Ichinomia, Tuesday. Yonhap
ICHINOMIYA, Japan — Lee So-hee and Baek Hana teamed up for their first Asian Games gold medal in the women's doubles in badminton Tuesday, ending South Korea's 24-year title drought in the process.
Lee and Baek, world No. 2, took down the top-ranked team from China, Lin Shengshu and Tan Ning, by the score of 2-1 (26-28, 21-18, 21-18) at Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium in Ichinomiya, just northwest of the main host city, Nagoya.
Lee and Baek are the first South Korean women's doubles tandem to reach the top of the Asiad podium since Ra Kyung-min and Lee Kyung-won in 2002.
Lee and Baek won silver at the previous Asiad in 2023 after losing to Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan of China, and they beat a different Chinese team Tuesday to grab their first gold.
This was the rematch of the world championships final from August, when Lee and Baek also prevailed for their first victory over Liu and Tan.
This gold medal contest had the makings of an instant classic between the world's two best women's doubles teams.
Down 18-17 in the first game, South Korea earned three straight points to set up a game point, with Tan and Lin both hitting their shots into the net.
But a miscue by Lee and a winner by Tan leveled the scored at 20-20, and the two teams were just getting started.
They kept trading points until the score got to 26-26, with the South Koreans unable to convert three game points along the way.
Baek's return went wide to set up a game point for China at 27-26, and then Liu landed her winner between the two South Korean players to take the opening game in 41 minutes.
The second game was another tight affair, with neither side leading by more than two points until South Korea went up 16-13. But that lead did not last long, as China battled back with three straight points on a series of South Korean errors.
Then after China went up 17-16, Lee and Baek responded with three straight points.
South Korea set up a game point at 20-18 when Tan's return hit the net, and Lee and Baek converted it this time when Liu failed to get her shot over the net.
In the deciding third game, Lee and Baek went up 10-6 after winning a 137-second rally, and Baek put down a winner.
The Chinese team punched back with five straight points and grabbed a 15-12 lead with some strong shotmaking.
Lee and Baek answered the bell and went up 17-16, but the match took an abrupt turn when South Korea won a point to make it 18-18 as Liu dropped to the court holding her left calf. She was tended to by medical staff for a few minutes and was essentially rendered immobile at that point.
With Liu limping and even playing a couple of shots from her knees, Tan tried to rally her team. But Lee and Baek closed out the match for the long-awaited gold by taking the final three points.