This Olympic badminton day has given us some great stories. If in mixed doubles, the Chinese Yilyu and Dongping won the gold medal, the great story comes from the Guatemalan Kevin Cordon who reached the quarter-finals of the men’s draw.
Cord Feat
Today, an Olympic medal was up for grabs for the mixed doubles category. In a Sino-Chinese final, the pair composed of Yilyu and Dongping won against Zheng and Huang. It took 3 sets to determine a winner (21-17,17-21, 21-19) in this relatively tense meeting. The Japanese Higashino and Watanabe complete this mixed doubles podium, after their victory in the small final.
Among the women, the Japanese and title contender Nozomi Okuhara fell in 3 sets against the Chinese He Bingjiao (13-21, 21-13, 21-14). In the other women’s quarters, Chen defeated Se Young (21-18, 21-19) and Pusarla Venkata beat Yamaguchi in straight sets (21-13, 22-20). Finally, Tai needed 3 sets to overcome Intanon (14-21, 21-18, 21-18).
In the men’s doubles, Lee and Wang earn a place in the final after their easy victory against Ahsan and Setiawan (21-11, 21-10). The other finalist ticket goes to Li and Liu who defeated Chia and Soh in 2 sets (24-22, 21-13). The losing teams will compete for the bronze medal.
But the beautiful story of these Games comes to us from Kevin Cordon. For his 4th Olympic Games, the one representing Guatemala reached the quarter-finals, which is of course his best performance. Against Mark Caljouw, Cordon created a feat by winning in 3 sets against a much too friable Dutchman (21-17, 3-21, 21-19). Cordon will face Korean Heo Kwang Hee, who knocked down top seed Kento Momota. “I’m just having fun. It’s an honor to play all these good players, whom we only watch on the internet. And when you get the chance to play them, it’s really nice,” he said.
The competition is far from over for international badminton players. This weekend promises to be hotly contested before an exceptional Monday when the main finals will be played.
Credit one: Guatemala.com
Romain Henry
I am in love with sport but it does not always return it to me well.
In Ligue 2 during the day, I change continents for South America at night.
I also watch cars and motorcycles go around a track, it’s cool.
ACCELERATED, ACCELERATED
