Korean pair advances at badminton worlds

By Yoon Chul

Korea’s top pairing of Lee Yong-dae and Jung Jae-sung has advanced to the quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships in London.

At Wembley Arena, the Korean duo beat Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa of Japan 2-0 (21-14, 21-5) in the round of 16 in the men’s doubles, Friday (KST). Their opponents are coached by Korean badminton great Park Joo-bong

Lee and Jung are hoping to bring the gold medal back to Korea for the first time since Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon in 1999.

In another round of 16 clash, two Korean pairs met with Yoo Yeon-sung and Ko Sung-hyun beating Kwon Yi-goo and Cho Gun-woo 2-0 (21-15, 21-17) to move forward.

But no Koreans managed to advance to the quarterfinals of the men’s singles.

Park Sung-hwan, who took bronze in the last championships, lost to World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia 2-0 (21-10, 21-5) and Lee Hyun-il was defeated by Beijing Olympic gold medalist Lin Dan of China 2-0 (21-16, 21-13)