PETALING JAYA: Shuttler An Se-young screamed in delight and fell on her knees in sheer joy as the crowd cheered and celebrated her victory.
Truly, Se-young deserve a standing ovation as she had battled back from a knee injury to end South Korea’s 28-year wait for a women’s singles gold in the Olympic Games.
Se-young had injured her right knee in October last year and still plays with strapping but yesterday, she completed her remarkable medal collection at just 22 years old by beating China’s He Bingjiao 21-13, 21-16 in the final at Adidas Arena in Port de la Chapelle.
The former created history by becoming the first Korean to win the World Championships title last August and captured gold in the Asian Games just two months later and has now emulated Bang Soo-hyun’s title winning feat in the Olympics.
Soo-hyun won the women’s singles crown at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Se-young, who reached No. 1 spot in the world last year, was in control from start to finish against world No. 9 Bingjiao and won the match in 51 minutes.
The Korean had a tougher time in the quarter-finals and last four when she was pushed to three games by Japan’s former two-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi and Indonesia’s world No. 8 Gregoria Mariska respectively but managed to prevail in the end to reach the final.
“I’ve been saving up my feelings for the last seven years for this moment,” said Se-young.
“All the agony, the frustration, this is where it all came out.”
Meanwhile, the silver was Bingjiao’s first medal in the Olympics after losing to India’s P. V. Sindhu in the bronze medal playoff in the 2021 Tokyo Games.
It was also only the second time that China has missed out on the women’s singles gold in the Olympics since the 2000 Sydney edition.
The other time was in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games where Spain’s Carolina Marin captured the title.
This time, the Spaniard was forced to retire in the semi-finals against Bingjiao after suffering a knee injury.
Gregoria was automatically awarded the bronze after Marin’s withdrawal.
