Dubai: China defeated Korea 3-1 in the final of the 2023 Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship (BAMTC) to win its second consecutive BAMTC in Dubai on Sunday.
Facing Korea in the final, Lei Lanxi spearheaded China’s challenge in the men’s singles match when the World No. 121 player overcame Korea’s World No. 239 Lee Yun Gyu 21-16, 21-15, giving his team a 1-0 lead.
In the women’s singles match that followed, World No. 101 Gao Fangjie was taking on World No. 20 Kim Ga Eun of Korea. Despite the huge gap in the world rankings, that didn’t stop Gao from unleashing her ruthless attacks to tame Kim 21-15, 21-15 in 50 minutes. Both Gao and Kim had previously met in the 2018 Canada Open first round where Gao won the match-up with the score of 21-9, 21-18.
The Korean team saw a small glimpse of hope to potentially push the tie to the fifth match when scratch pair Kim Won Ho/Na Sung Seung pulled one back against China’s World No. 21 men’s pair He Jiting/Zhou Haodong 19-21, 21-16, 21-17 to trail at 1-2.
However, in the fourth match, China’s World No. 296 women’s pair – Liu Shengshu/Tan Ning denied Korea the chance for a fifth match by seeing off another Korean scratch pair – Jeong Na Eun/Lee So Hee 21-11, 21-10.
In other continental badminton mixed team championships, World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen led Denmark to a narrow 3-2 win against France in the final on Saturday. The Pan American Cup final saw Canada sweep the USA 3-0 while Australia became the champions at the Oceania Mixed Team Championships.
