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28 March 2024

'Super Dan' withdraws over waist injury

Published
By AFP

China's badminton superstar Lin Dan withdrew from his men's singles semi-final at the Asian Championships Saturday, in a surprise move blamed on a recurring waist injury, state media said.

Organisers of the tournament said the top seed's injury recurred in morning training, forcing the four-time world champion, five-time All England winner and reigning Asian champion to pull out, according to the Xinhua news agency.

His withdrawal sends third seed Chen Jin straight to the final where he will face fifth seed Du Pengyu.

Du fought back against second seed Chen Long to win 17-21, 21-16, 21-12.

The finals in the eastern city of Qingdao take place on Sunday.

The Asian Championships are one of the last major tournaments before the London Olympics. But the forfeit will not affect Lin's Olympic ambitions, as the 28-year-old has already qualified for the Games.

China's dominance of the tournament saw four Chinese semi-finalists in both the men's and women's draw.

And they are also guaranteed victory in the women's doubles and mixed doubles, where Chinese team-mates will face off against each other for the title.

In the women's draw, world number one Wang Yihan beat third seed Wang Shixian 21-19, 21-12, although neither player was satisfied with their performance.

"Neither of us did well today," said Yihan. "I won only because Shixian made more mistakes."

She will face fourth seed Li Xuerui in the final after she beat the promising Chen Xiaojia 21-15, 22-20.

China's hopes of a clean sweep were only ruined by the men's doubles, where two Chinese pairs lost out to teams from Japan and Korea.