Japanese shuttlers' double golden delight at Asian Championships
Japan's Kento Momota in action against Shi Yuqi of China en route to his 12-21, 21-18, 21-8 victory in the men's singles final of the Asian Badminton Championships in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, on Sunday.
Japan showed its muscle on Sunday — posing a real threat to China's dominance in badminton — by winning two finals out of three against its rival at the Asian Badminton Championships.
Top seed Kento Momota defended his title by defeating Chinese second seed Shi Yuqi 12-21, 21-18, 21-8 in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province.
"Momota is a strong opponent, who lived up to his reputation (in the final)," said Shi. "I regret the loss. But I made more mistakes compared to him. His offensive play was not a lot, but was of a very high quality."
Third-seeded Akane Yamaguchi of Japan surged into early leads in both games against her Chinese opponent He Bingjiao to seal a 21-19, 21-9 win. This victory brought Japan its first women's singles title at the Asian Championships.
"The (final) battle exposed some of my weaknesses, on which I need to improve," He said afterwards. "A champion needs not only fighting spirit, but also good technique and tactics. When I am ready with that, I have confidence that I can beat her (Yamaguchi)."
In the final of the women's doubles, Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan notched up a hard-fought 19-21, 21-14, 21-19 victory over Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara of Japan.
"In the women's doubles, we should learn from Japan to expand the pool of talent to increase our chances of winning," said Chen. As shown in the latest rankings, the top three pairs in women's doubles are all from Japan.
Japanese shuttlers have been rising in all five categories. Back in 2015, Japan did not win a single title at the Asian Championships but it has steadily improved, taking gold medals in women's doubles from 2016 for three consecutive years, men's singles from 2018, as well as women's singles and men's doubles in 2019.
Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping defeated their compatriots He Jiting and Du Yue 21-11, 13-21, 23-21 to win the mixed doubles crown.
"The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be a tough battle against Japanese players. They must be 200 percent motivated when fighting on home soil," said Wang. "But there will only be one champion (in each category), and we have the same goal as they do — the gold medal."
In the men's doubles, the Japanese pair Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe emerged champions by beating Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia 21-18, 21-3.
