South Korea's shuttlecock, medal race green light, mixed doubles dramatic advance to the quarterfinals + quarterfinals favorable to South Korea
Jul 30, 2024
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A green light has been turned on for the medal front of the Paris Olympics in Korean badminton. Among the five badminton events (men's and women's teams, doubles and mixed doubles), good news and good luck followed in mixed doubles, which will be the first to announce the medal news.
The Badminton Korea Association expects its best performance ever, including winning the gold medal for the first time in 16 years since the gold medal in mixed doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. All three doubles events, including Ahn Se-young (22, Samsung Life Insurance), the world's No. 1 women's singles player, are expected to be in the medal table as only the final color is different.
In the meantime, the mixed doubles will be the first to start the medal race, starting the quarterfinals early next month (hereinafter in Korean time). Korea has participated in the mixed doubles with two groups: Seo Seung-jae (27, Samsung Life Insurance), Chae Yoo-jeong (29, Incheon International Airport), Kim Won-ho (25, Samsung Life Insurance), and Jung Na-eun (24, Hwasun County Office). South Korea, which was eliminated from the quarterfinals due to China's wall with only Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yoo-jung participating in the '2020 Tokyo Olympics', will face a race in a completely different atmosphere than three years ago in Paris.
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Rivaldi-Mentari suffered an unexpected defeat to Kim Won-ho and Jung Na-eun in the first game, but instead of winning a close game 2-1 on the game score, it was thanks to a complete defeat against the French team without securing a game.
In the midst of this, there was good news for Korea in Group D. Peng Yanzhi and Huang Dongping of China, ranked third in the world, fell to second place in the group as they lost 1-2 to Chen Tangje and Toy Wei of Malaysia, ranked ninth in the world. Peng Yen-jeo and Huang Dongping, who are considered the top three contenders along with Seo Seung-jae, Chae Yoo-jeong, Jeong Su-wei, and Huang Yachung, were catastrophic for China.
In the quarterfinal match draw held on Thursday, Chinese teams will face off from the quarterfinals. In the case of badminton doubles, the first place in each group is distributed, and the tournament match is made through a lottery between the second place in the group under the principle of excluding the same group in the preliminary round. China's 'big picture' is completely intertwined, as it did at the Tokyo Olympics, with each passing first place in Group A and D and having a final family match.
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Korea, on the other hand, has greatly eased its burden. Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yoo-jung, who lost in the group stage at the Tokyo Olympics to Zheng Thwei-Hwang Ya-chung and Wang Yi-ryu-Hwang Dongping in the quarterfinals, did not meet China until the final. In the quarterfinals, he will meet world No. 7 Tang Chun-man and Cheung Shui-et (Hong Kong), who are dominant with 5 wins and 2 losses against each other. In particular, since he has won three consecutive games since his two losses in 2019, he is likely to advance to the semifinals unless something unexpected happens.
Kim Won-ho and Jung Na-eun will clash with Chen Tang-je and Toy Wei, who suffered a shock defeat to Feng Yanzer and Hwang Dong-ping, in the quarterfinals. It is not easy to predict with one win and two losses, but if it advances to the semifinals, it will have a semifinal match against Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yoo-jung. This also means that we can secure at least a silver medal soon.
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