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Dane Wins At Men's Badminton

ATLANTA -- Denmark's Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen broke an Asian monopoly today by defeating China's Dong Jiong 15-12, 15-10 in the men's singles finals of Olympic badminton.

In women's singles, South Korea's Bang Soo-hyun easily held back the charge of 16-year-old Mia Audina of Indonesia to win 11-6, 11-7.

At 6-foot-2, the left-handed Hoyer-Larsen used his height to send shots back to Dong at nearly impossible angles, often catching corners of the court or just nudging drop shots over the net.

After rushing to a 5-0 lead in the second set, he maintained that margin the rest of the way.

Hoyer-Larsen tied for fifth in the last Olympics but had been moving up the rankings in the world and was seeded second in the tournament.

After the final shot, he threw his racket into the air, collapsed on the court and then rushed over to the red-and-white Danish cheering section to lead a cheer. He repeated it for the Danish fans on the other side of the arena.

Bang, a silver medalist at Barcelona, was the women's favorite after she ousted defending champion Susi Susanti of Indonesia in the semifinals. The South Korean didn't lose a game throughout the tournament, once even beating an opponent 11-0, 11-0 in ten minutes.

``There was a lot of mental pressure in the semifinals against Susanti, because I thought she was stronger than me,'' Bang said.

Against Audina, who has been regarded as Susanti's successor, Bang was in control of the match. She played steadily throughout while Audina made the mistakes, most of the time just catching the net after a short rally.

Even in the second set when Audina led, 7-5, Bang didn't panic as she methodically ran off the last six points.

``In the first set I didn't have to use too much force to win the points,'' Bang said. ``In the second set I needed a bit more force and toward the end I started to put a little more strength in my shots.''

On Wednesday, Indonesia's Rexy Mainaky and Ricky Subagja went for more smashes and rallied to beat Malaysia's Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock, 5-15, 15-13, 15-12 to win the men's doubles title.

Ge Fei and Gu Jun of China captured the women's gold, beating South Korea's Gil Young-ah and Jang Hye-ock, 15-5, 15-5.