Men's doubles badminton team loses bid for gold

The South Korean badminton duo of Lee Yong-dae and Chung Jae-sung lost to their Danish counterparts in the men's doubles seminfinals at the London Olympics Saturday.

At Wembley Arena, Lee and Chung fell to Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark in three sets. The South Koreans now will vie for the bronze medal on Sunday against Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia.

Down 17-13 in the decisive third set, Lee and Chung pulled even at 18-18 with an array of winners. After the Dane duo held the match point at 20-19, the Koreans forced a deuce before conceding the next two points and the match.

The South Koreans took the first game 21-17, keeping their Danish counterparts on the back of their heels from the start. But the Denmark team fought back to win the next game 21-18, ending a seesaw battle with two straight points.

Boe and Mogensen had a quick start to the third game, leading

7-4 as their winners repeatedly fell just out of reach of the South Koreans. Lee and Chung got ahead 11-10 but that would be their last lead of the day.

Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng of China, the reigning Olympic silver medalists, are waiting for the Danes in the final.

The South Koreans came to London ranked No. 1 in the world.

They secured the top position by edging out the same Boe-Mogensen team to claim the Indonesian Open in June.

After the loss, Lee said he and Chung rushed after winning the first set.

"We'd expected a difficult match," he said. "We couldn't quite get over the hump. But we've got one more game left tomorrow (for the bronze medal) and we will regroup as soon as we can."

Chung was seeking his first Olympic medal. Lee won the mixed doubles gold in Beijing with partner Lee Hyo-jung, but he and his new partner, Ha Jung-eun, were eliminated from the group stage in London. This is the first time in a dozen years that South Korea has failed to win an Olympic badminton gold.

The South Korean badminton delegation is reeling from the match-throwing scandal that saw two female doubles pairs disqualified from the Olympics earlier this week. The four players, along with an assistant coach, returned home Saturday and Sung Han-kook, the team's head coach, has apologized for the scandal. (Yonhap News)