Lee and Yoo Continue Rio Olympics Gold Bid for Badminton

The top-ranked duo of Lee Yong Dae and Yoo Yeon Seong advanced to the quarterfinals in the badminton men's doubles in the ongoing Rio Olympics, this despite their loss last Saturday, August 13.

In the last round of the group stage on Saturday, the two South Korean badminton representatives played against Russia's Ivan Sozonov and Vladimir Ivanov, who are ranked 13. they defeated Lee and Yoo with the score 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 21-16) and ended the group stage as the top team. Lee and Yoo settled for the second place with a record of two wins and one loss. Earlier in the group stage, they defeated Lee Sheng Mu and Tsai Chia Hsin of Taiwan, and Matthew Chau and Sawan Serasinghe of Australia, leading them to the knockout stage.

The duo, however, should not be complacent and must learn from their loss against Russia and their struggles in the earlier games.

Based on a report from the Yonhap News Agency, Yoo said, "We have to make sure we don't make the same mistakes. We are going to rest tomorrow to regroup and then give everything we have starting in the quarterfinals."

Meanwhile, the men's badminton doubles team from Indonesia composed of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, who were also ranked number two and considered the greatest rivals of the South Korean badminton duo, failed to advance to the next, finishing third in Group D behind Japan's Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa, and China's Biao Chai and Wei Hong.

Another South Korean badminton team for the men's doubles category that includes Kim Ki Jung and Kim Sa Rang, ranked number 3 in the world, topped the Group C and also advanced to the quarterfinals. In women's doubles, the teams of Shin Seung Chan and Jung Kyung Eun, and Chang Ye Na and Lee So Hee topped their respective groups in the preliminaries. Lastly, the mixed doubles duo of Ko Sung Hyun and Kim Ha Na, ranked number 2 in the world, topped Group D and qualified for the quarterfinals.

With all five teams in the quarterfinals and with a little bit of luck, the badminton team of South Korea has better and higher chances of winning a gold medal.

The country bagged one bronze from the badminton team at the 2012 London Olympics courtesy of Jung Jae Sung and Lee Yong Dae.