August 16, 2008	Saturday	Sha'aban 13, 1429

BEIJING, Aug 15: China struck first gold at the Olympic badminton on Friday after Du Jing and Yu Yang won the women’s doubles title, defeating South Korea’s Lee Hyojung and Lee Kyungwon who claimed silver.

Du and Yu, seeded second, overpowered the South Korean duo 21-15, 21-13 to extend China’s gold medal domination of this event to four straight Olympics.

The pair dropped to the court floor after the win, before jumping into the arms of their coaches as the packed Chinese crowd roared.

The gold is the first for the Olympic badminton tournament, with China keeping their ambitions alive of taking a clean sweep of all five.

China’s pair took the first game in front of the screaming, flag-waving crowd at the Beijing University of Technology gymnasium.

South Korea’s fourth seeds fought back in the second, edging ahead 9-6 but China clawed their way to level at 11-11.

With the pressure mounting and the crowd upping the noise level, the South Koreans made several errors in a row, giving the Chinese the lead.

China’s third seeds Wei Yili and Zhang Yawen take bronze. They defeated Japan’s Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna 21-17, 21-10, who were gunning for their country’s first ever medal of any colour in badminton.

China are also guaranteed gold as well as silver in the women’s singles after their last challenger, Indonesia’s Maria Kristin Yulianti, was eliminated earlier on Friday.

World No 1 Xie Xingfang will take on defending Olympic champion Zhang Ning in Saturday’s final.

Zhang fought off Indonesia’s unseeded Yulianti for a 21-15, 21-15 victory.

Xie — favourite to clinch a golden double for China with boyfriend and fellow world number one Lin Dan — showed why she is the top seed in her semi-final against team-mate Lu Lan, staging a comeback to win 7-21, 21-10, 21-12.—AFP