China sweep Asian Badminton titles

BEIJING (AFP) - Fresh from sweeping all five gold medals on offer at the Asian Badminton Championships, China's powerful team of shuttlers led by Lin Dan is now focusing on qualification for the 2012 London Olympics. Known as "Super Dan" for his string of major badminton crowns, Lin dispatched team-mate Bao Chunlai in straight sets in Sunday's final in the Chinese city of Chengdu, 21-19, 21-13. The victory gave him his second straight men's singles Asian title. Meanwhile, second-seeded Wang Yihan beat team-mate Lu Lan 21-15, 23-21 to take the women's singles, as Chinese shuttlers faced team-mates in all of the gold medal matches except the men's doubles. In that match-up, the Chinese duo of Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng beat the Japanese pairing of Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu Hirata 21-12, 21-15. With most strong Asian teams leaving their stars at home, China's plan was to use the championships to prepare for next month's Sudirman Cup, which kicks off qualifying for the London Olympics, China's coach Li Yongbo told Titan Sports Weekly. "Although we won all five gold medals, we still have some clear problems with our technique, focus and tactics," Li said, "before the Sudirman Cup we have to focus on eliminating these problems." In the women's doubles final Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli beat Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei 21-13, 21-10, while Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei beat Xu Chen and Ma Jin 15-21, 21-15, 25-23 to win the mixed doubles title.

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