Axelsen ends Lin dream in worlds final
Denmark's Viktor Axelsen ended Lin Dan's dream of a record sixth men's singles title at the BWF world championships with victory in Sunday's final in Glasgow, Scotland.
Axelsen became the third Dane to take gold with a 22-20, 21-16 win over the legendary 33-year-old from China.
The last Danish victory had also come in Glasgow, courtesy of Peter Rasmussen in 1997, and the first was 40 years ago when Flemming Delfs claimed the title at the inaugural championships.
Axelsen had accounted for Lin's compatriot and two-time world champion Chen Long in the semifinals while Lin had reached the final for the first time since his last world title in 2013 by taking out No. 1-ranked Son Wan-ho of South Korea 21-17, 21-14.
Earlier, Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan became the first gold medal winners at the world championships.
In the women’s doubles final, the Chinese No. 4 seeds beat Japan’s Yuki Fukushima and Sayaki Hirota 21-18, 17-21, 21-15.
In the next match — the women's singles final — Nozomi Okuhara became the first Japanese player to win a world singles title with a magnificent deciding-game win over India’s PV Sindhu.
In the longest match of the world championships, the 22-year-old won 21-19, 20-22, 22-20 in 110 minutes.
Okuhara had overcome another Indian and 2015 runner-up Saina Nehwal 12-21, 21-17, 21-10 in the semifinals. After ousting defending two-time champion Carolina Marin of Spain in the quarterfinals, Okuhara beat Nehwal for only the second time in four years.
Sindhu, the Olympic silver medalist, beat junior world champion Chen Yufei of China 21-13, 21-10 in the last four.