An Se-young's Strong Start Not Enough as South Korea Settles for Badminton Bronze After Losing to Japan

[Anchor]

Our national team, which was aiming for its second consecutive victory in the women's team badminton event at the Asian Games, has unfortunately fallen short of reaching the final. Although world number one An Se-young successfully seized the early momentum, the team conceded three consecutive matches to Japan and had to settle for a bronze medal.

Reporter Jeon Yeongmin has the story from the venue.

[Reporter]

Stepping up as the first runner in the team semifinal against Japan, An Se-young aggressively pressured world number three Akane Yamaguchi right from the start, against whom she had been on a seven-match winning streak.

After diving to defend, she immediately earned points with smashes and targeted the corners with diagonal attacks to capture the first game.

Although she dropped the second game after getting caught up in Yamaguchi's pace, she quickly regained her composure and overwhelmed Yamaguchi once again in the final game to secure the first win.

However, the national team failed to maintain the momentum.

In the second doubles match, world number two Lee So-hee and Baek Hana lost 2 to 0, and in the third singles match, Shim Yu-jin, followed by the final doubles match pairing Kim Hye-jeong and Jeong Na-eun, all bowed their heads in defeat, missing out on the final with a score of 1 win and 3 losses.

The national badminton team will resume its hunt for medals in the individual events starting tomorrow, September 25.

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Wushu star Lee Ha-sung claimed a valuable silver medal.

After raising expectations by finishing second in the daoshu event, Lee Ha-sung completed the gunshu event without any major mistakes, standing on the podium once again 12 years after winning the gold medal at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

(Video by Yang Doo-won | Video Editing by Lee Hong-myung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.