The women's singles gold medal was won two days ahead of schedule! Today's Ningbo Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium belongs to the Chinese team, and the Chinese team has gained a lot from just 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The ongoing 2024 Asian Badminton Championships entered the quarterfinals today, and although the game was only halfway through, the Chinese team had already won a "big victory". Not only because the national badminton women's singles achieved the semi-finals and won the championship two days ahead of schedule, but also because Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi finally locked in the Olympic qualification, the Chinese badminton team finally achieved the full quota for the Paris Olympics today.
After the first two rounds of competition, the Chinese team has two men's singles, four women's singles, two men's doubles, three women's doubles, and three mixed doubles to reach the quarterfinals. Today's match starts at 1 p.m. and is just halfway through the press close, with the focus all on the Women's Singles and Men's Doubles, which are crucial to Olympic qualification.
Wang Zhiyi, who was the first to appear, defeated Japan's Aya Ohori 15-21, 21-12, 21-11 and advanced to the semifinals. After that, He Bingjiao defeated top seed An Xiying 21-17, 21-18, breaking a seven-game losing streak against her opponent since 2023, and at the same time helping the national feather women's singles achieve a meeting in the top half.
Han Yue, who was the third to play, defeated Akane Yamaguchi, who had never been defeated, 21-13, 21-16, and the last piece of the puzzle for the national feather women's singles to win the semifinals fell on Chen Yufei. In the end, Chen Yufei withstood the pressure and defeated Indonesia's Mariska 21-16, 21-19, and the national feather women's singles achieved the semi-finals and locked the gold medal two days in advance!
In fact, it was a big event for Han Yue to break through Akane Yamaguchi, who had lost five in a row, but almost all the reporters at that time were attracted by the men's doubles battle on the next court. This also starts with the earlier loss of "Tuou". In the second match this afternoon, the national feather men's doubles Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi lost 0-2 to Malaysia's Hsieh Ding Feng/Su Wei Yi, and the initiative to retain Olympic qualification fell to Chinese Taipei men's doubles Li Yang/Wang Chi Lin. If the opponent wins the Asian Championships, he will squeeze "Liu Ou" out of the top eight and squeeze out of the Paris Olympics.
Therefore, the "Antelope" pair and another Malaysian pair, Goh Shi Fei and Nui Zuuddin, will be very important. The two sides battled three games, and in the end, the "Yi Fei" pair narrowly won 21-19 in the deciding game, helping the Malaysian men's doubles team to achieve the second half of the division and ensuring the Olympic qualification of Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi. So far, the Chinese badminton team has finally achieved full participation in the Paris Olympics.
In other matches that have been played, the Women's Doubles team Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan have not fully recovered from the effects of Jia Yifan's injury at All England, and they narrowly beat Japan's Hiroko Sakuramoto/Rena Miyaura 21-10, 18-21, 21-19 after 77 minutes. In the second game, "Fan Chen" was reversed after taking the lead, and the tiebreaker started the game with 0-7 down. After falling behind, they tried their best to fight back, scored an astonishing 10 points in a row, and finally won in a thrilling way. Jia Yifan said that after Quan Ying's injury, she was bedridden for a week, and then trained for no more than an hour a day for insurance purposes, and today's game was the longest confrontation in this month, which also gave her a lot of encouragement and confidence.
In the other Women's Doubles quarter-finals, Zheng Yu/Zhang Shuxian played well, defeating Japan's Chiyo Shida/Naomi Matsuyama 21-7, 21-16, and met "Fan Chen" in the upper half of the Women's Doubles. Later in the day, Tan Ning/Liu Shengshu will also take on South Korea's Lee Youlin/Shin Seung Chan. In Men's Singles, top seed Shi Yuqi defeated Thailand's Kunlavut 2-0 after the French Open final. Li Shifeng will take on Indonesia's Ginting later in the field. At the time of writing, none of the three Mixed Doubles pairs will feature in action, with "IELTS" taking on Hong Kong's Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet, "Phoenix" taking on Korea's Kim Won Ho/Jung Na Eun, Chiang Chun Pong/Wei Ya Yan taking on Japan's Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino and Men's Doubles Leung Wai Hang/Wang Chang taking on Indonesia's Alfian/Ardianto again in the evening.