South Korea extends women's doubles gold lineage first achieved at 2002 Busan Games

Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na of South Korea celebrate with a high-five after defeating China's Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning in the women's doubles badminton final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held Tuesday at Ichinomiya City Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. [Yonhap]
Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na of South Korea celebrate with a high-five after defeating China's Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning in the women's doubles badminton final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held Tuesday at Ichinomiya City Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. [Yonhap]

World No. 2 women's doubles pair Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na of Incheon International Airport badminton club defeated world No. 1 Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning of China to claim gold at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

The South Korean pair beat Liu and Tan 2-1 (26-28, 21-18, 21-18) in the women's doubles final Tuesday at Ichinomiya City Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

It was South Korea's first Asian Games gold in women's doubles since Ra Kyung-min and Lee Kyung-won won at the 2002 Busan Games — a 24-year gap. Lee and Baek, who had settled for silver at the 2022 Hangzhou Games, reached the final in two consecutive editions before finally claiming the top spot.

Liu and Tan had beaten them five times this year alone, but Lee and Baek proved stronger when it mattered most. The pair had already toppled the Chinese duo at the World Championships just before the Asian Games, delivering South Korea's first women's doubles world title in 31 years, and they followed that up with another victory Tuesday.

The opening game was tightly contested. Lee and Baek dropped it in a deuce battle, 26-28, but came back in the second. They forced errors from their opponents to seize momentum from 16-16 and took the game 21-18, leveling the match.

In the deciding third game, South Korea jumped out to a 5-2 lead before China fought back to go ahead 15-12. Baek's net play and smashes helped claw the score back to 16-16, and a long rally ended with a shot driven between the two Chinese players to put South Korea ahead 17-16.

At 18-18, Liu Shengshu signaled pain in her left foot and play was briefly halted. When the match resumed, Lee and Baek kept their focus and reeled off three straight points to close out a 21-18 win.

Having beaten the world No. 1 pair at both the World Championships and the Asian Games in quick succession, Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na restored South Korea's women's doubles gold legacy at the Asian Games after a 24-year absence.


yjc@heraldcorp.com