By sportswriter Cheng Zhiliang
BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Danish duo of Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen, the country and Europe's last hope for a badminton men's doubles medal at the Beijing Olympic Games, were beaten by South Korean rivals here on Saturday.
They lost to Lee Jae-jin and Hwang Ji-man 21-13, 18-21, 18-21, 18-21. The Danish were very close to victory after winning the first game and taking leat at 18-16 in the second. However, they lost the match.
Paaske commented on the decisive game that "we had to recover from the shock that we had lost the second game, but a few bad decisions and a few good rallies from the Koreans meant that anything could happen."
He said they showed throughout the badminton tournament at the Olympic Games that they could have been standing in the No. 1 spot.
Rasmussen, a mixed doubles quarterfinalist and one of the men's doubles last 16 at the Athens Olympic Games, attributed the failure to achieve medals in Beijing to bad luck.
"The shuttle stopped a bit on our side because of the wind and this gave the Koreans confidence," he said on losing two crucial points in the second game.
Lee Jae-jin of the winning Korean duo said at the beginning of the second game, they realized that the Danish pair were a little impatient, "so we knew it was the key point to come back."
European shuttlers had been forced out by Thursday at the Beijing Olympic Games, while Asians including world No. 1 men's singles player Lin Dan underlined their dominance on the court.
During Thursday's quarterfinal matches, the European hopes for men's singles and mixed doubles, namely Peter Gade and the duo of Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Thomas Laybourn from Denmark and the British duo of Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson from Britain, were all eliminated.
The Danish men's pair of Paaske and Rasmussen were the only Europeans left in the badminton tournament on Thursday.
"This is my best ever match. However, Lin was in very good form and I failed to improve my accuracy," said Gade, the world's No. 8, after losing to Lin Dan from China in straight games.
Gade said he planned to retire after the World Championships next year, while his teammate Kenneth Jonassen also planned to retire after a defeat on Monday.
The Emms/Robberson duo acted as a dark horse in the first round of mixed doubles for defeating world No. 2 Gao Ling and Zheng Bo from China, but they lost to Lee Hyo-jung and Lee Yong-dae from South Korea.
"We just didn't reach the same heights as the first round and we just didn't play our very best," said Robertson.
Thursday's match could be the last one for Emms before she retires from international badminton. "If that was our last tournament then we've we had a fantastic time. The dream ending that we wanted just didn't happen for us," Robertson said.
