OLYMPICS/Olympic gold medalists Lee, Wang back in men's doubles finals in Paris

Paris, Aug. 2 (CNA) Tokyo Olympic gold medalists Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) put themselves in position to defend their Olympic title when they advanced to the badminton men's doubles finals at the Paris Games on Friday.

The latest victory only accentuated the shocking run in Paris by the world No. 12 duo, who had won only one title, the Japan Open in late July 2023, and made the finals of only two other lower tier Super 300 events since winning the gold medal in Tokyo three years ago.

In Friday's semifinals, Lee and Wang defeated the second-ranked duo in the world, Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark, 18-21, 21-17, 21-10 to earn a spot in the gold medal match against the world No. 1 duo -- Wang Chang (王昶) and Liang Weikeng (梁偉鏗) of China.

Lee said in a post-game interview that he never thought he and Wang could get this far.

"I'm very thankful to my partner Chi-lin for enabling me to enter the finals in my final Olympic appearance," he said.

The Danes got the upper hand in the first game, seemingly determined to avenge their loss to their Taiwanese opponents in the preliminary group stage of the tournament.

But Lee and Wang picked up the pace and took the second game 21-17 and carried the momentum over to the final game when their quickness in rapid volley rallies, court awareness, and Wang's smashes overwhelmed the Danes on the way to victory.

Wang said he and Lee felt a lot of pressure in the opening game, but Lee started ratcheting up the pressure on the Danes at net in the second game, "which gave me plenty of chances to hit smashes from the back of the court."

"We knew our opponents wanted to catch up in the final game, so we played several long shots on purpose, which proved very useful," he said.

For Lee, the Paris experience has been completely different than the experience in Tokyo.

"In Tokyo there were no fans and nobody who recognized us. The atmosphere was totally different than it is here. There are so many fans cheering for us," Lee said.

As much as their experience in Tokyo was different, Lee and Wang are hoping that the result will be the same.

The final is scheduled for late Sunday night, Taiwan time.