Tokyo Olympics: Indonesia blast China away in badminton doubles final to clinch first gold medal of 2020 Games

Name: Indonesian women outclass China’s badminton doubles team to clinch first gold in Tokyo Olympics
Uploaded: 2021-08-02T06:10:01.000Z
Duration: 4 min 1 s
Description: Indonesian women outclass China’s badminton doubles team to clinch first gold in Tokyo Olympics

Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu overcome with emotion after straight-sets victory against second-seeded Chinese

Breakthrough for Indonesian duo, who had previously only managed a series of bronze medals at major competitions

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Indonesia‘s Greysia Polii (right) and Apriyani Rahayu celebrate after defeating China’s Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan during their women’s doubles gold medal match at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Photo: AP

Paul Rydingin Tokyo

Published: 2:10pm, 2 Aug 2021Updated: 10:25pm, 2 Aug 2021

Indonesia claimed a thrilling Tokyo 2020 badminton triumph over the heavily-fancied Chinese in the final of the women’s doubles on Monday to clinch its first medal of these Games.

The pairing of the veteran Greysia Polii – appearing at her third Olympics – and Apriyani Rahayu finally made the step up on the biggest stage of all, after a series of near-misses on podiums at three World Championships and the 2018 Asian Games on home soil in recent years.

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Indonesian women outclass China’s badminton doubles team to clinch first gold in Tokyo Olympics

The Chinese duo of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan could do little to halt the charge of the storming Jakarta-based duo as they wrapped up a 21-19, 21-15 victory inside an hour at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza.

A thrilling opening game saw the Indonesians move 19-14 in front before being clawed back by the Chinese. But Polii and Rahayu dug deep to see out the opener.

Indonesia’s Greysia Polii (right) is overcome with emotion after claiming badminton gold at Tokyo 2020. Photo: AFP

In the second game, the Indonesians blazed even further in front, at one stage nine points to the good. Chen and Jia attempted to rally, but had given themselves too much of a mountain to climb and Polii and Rahayu wrapped up the win to become Indonesia’s first Olympic champions in women’s doubles, and maintain their country’s fine track record of badminton success at the Olympics.

“I’m speechless right now. This is how it feels to get the gold medal. You cannot describe it in words,” Polii said.

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