An Se-young wins gold medal in badminton women’s singles

The world’s best badminton player, An Se-young, won her first gold medal in the women’s singles at the Olympic Games in Paris on Monday, giving South Korea its first badminton title in 28 years.

An defeated China’s He Bingjiao 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) in the final at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena in the French capital. In doing so, she became only the second South Korean woman to win an Olympic singles title, after Bang Soo-hyun in 1996.

South Korea has now won 11 gold medals in total, leaving them just two shy of equaling the record set at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and four years later in London.

An had lost the opening matches of her two previous knockout matches, but managed to hold her own against He, with the gold medal at stake.

She came away from an early see-saw match with three straight points for a 12-9 lead. With a series of well-hit shots that sent He up and down the court, An won most of the long rallies.

Just as he was trying to maintain the tension, An took the last five points of the first game and won it 21-13.

The Chinese player showed a little life in the second game, when she tied the game at 11-11 with four straight points. But An responded with a 5-0 run, capped by a hard smash that led to an easy push shot.

He won a long rally at the end of the match to stay alive, but An cashed in her gold medal point on her third attempt when He’s return went too far. (Yonhap)