▲ South Korea's Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho compete against Indonesia's Daniel Marthin and Leo Rolly Carnando during the badminton men's doubles semifinals at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Ichinomiya City Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on the 28th. (Photo: Yonhap News)
World's top-ranked badminton men's doubles pair Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho narrowly missed the chance to reach the Asian Games final.
World No. 1 men's doubles pair Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho lost 0-2 in just 32 minutes to Indonesia's Daniel Marthin and Leo Rolly Carnando in the semifinals of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games badminton men's doubles at the Ichinomiya City Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, today (the 28th).
Having missed out on a spot in the final, Seo and Kim will finish this tournament with a bronze medal.
Their opponents, Marthin and Carnando, have slipped to 46th in the world rankings because their previous ranking points expired while they competed with different partners for a while, but they are formidable contenders who consistently ranked within the top 10 in the past.
From the very beginning of the match, Seo and Kim were overwhelmed by the fierce momentum of the Indonesian pair and quickly relinquished control.
Trailing 8-12 in the first game, the South Korean pair fell apart rapidly by conceding five consecutive points, eventually losing the first game by a 10-point margin in just 15 minutes from the start of the match.
The flow did not change much in the second game even after regrouping.
Stumbling after giving up six straight points early on, Seo and Kim struggled against their opponents' fast-paced attacks, reaching the interval down 5-11. Failing to find a turning point thereafter, they had to wrap up the match in disappointment.
Having tied the record for the most wins in a single season by claiming 11 championship trophies right after forming their partnership last season, they set out for redemption in this tournament, but fell short of their goal.
Consequently, it was painful that they could not break their recent streak of failing to cross the threshold of victory in their past seven international competitions.
With their failure to advance to the final, South Korean badminton's long-held aspiration for a men's doubles gold medal must wait for another time.
South Korean badminton has gone 24 years without a gold medal in the Asian Games men's doubles event since Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung won at the 2002 Busan Games.
Meanwhile, Kim Won-ho—who partnered with Choi Sol-gyu to claim a silver medal at the previous 2022 Hangzhou Games—added a bronze medal at this tournament with a new partner, securing a medal for the second consecutive games, though he failed to achieve his desired goal of winning the championship.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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