OLYMPICS: BADMINTON - DAY 9 AM RESULTS HOYER TAKES THE GOLD - BANG IS THE NEW QUEEN OF BADMINTON August 1, 1996 (D.Shuttlenws) - Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark scored a great victory for himself, his country and non-Asian badminton players and fans when he defeated Dong Jiong of China in the men's singles finals at the Atlanta Olympic Games to capture the cherished gold medal. The lefthanded Hoyer played a controlled style throughout the match, trying to keep the shuttle in the front court with spinning netshots and drops and away from Dong's jumpsmash attack. The first game went to Hoyer 15-12. In the second game, Hoyer took an early 5-0 lead as he induced Dong into several mistakes with deceptive or surprise shots. The two exchanged points to 12-7. Dong then managed to string several winning shots to get to within 2 points of the Danish ace at 12-10. Hoyer got the service back on a deceptive crosscourt drop shot that caught Dong waiting in the wrong side of his court. On Hoyer's serve at 12-10, the umpire made a crucial call that went against Dong and put the score at 13-10. Dong was faulted for moving forward while Hoyer was serving but before Hoyer actually struck the shuttle. Hoyer then nudged the score to 14-10 on a flat half-smash that stayed inbounds. At match point, Hoyer induced Dong to lift the shuttle to his forehand side and he then smacked a crosscourt winner into Dong's backhand side. Hoyer's gold medal is the only badminton medal won by a non-Asian in this Olympics and is the only badminton Olympic gold medal won by a non-Asian ever. Dong Jiong was awarded the silver medal as the losing finalist. Rashid Sidek received the bronze medal as the winner of the third place playoff match last night over Heryanto Arbi of Indonesia. In the women's singles finals, Bang Soo Hyun of Korea, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist, this time took the gold medal, beating Mia Audina of Indonesia 11-6 and 11-7. Both players started out even in the first game. With the score knotted at 6-all, the relatively inexperienced Audina who is only 16-years old made several unforced errors and allowed Bang to get to game point at 10-6. Audina and Bang exchanged services as the young Indonesian staved off 3 game points. Audina then seemd to lose her composure when a line call went against her and the next rally saw Bang scoring the all-important eleventh point. In the second game, both again played even at the start with Audina keeping pace with the more experienced Korean at 7-all. Audina then made some mistakes that Bang capitalized on as she rolled to an 11-7 win. Bang's gold medal is the first of two badminton gold medals for Korea at this Olympics. A second is guaranteed later today in the mixed doubles finals to be contested by two Korean pairs - Park Joo Bong and Ra Kyung Min versus Kim Dong Moon and Gil Young Ah. Audina's silver medal coupled with Susi Susanti's bronze medal are the only badminton singles medals for Indonesia, a significant drop from their performance in Barcelona. Men's Singles - Finals (August 1, 1996) HOYER-LARSEN, Poul-Erik (2) - Denmark beat DONG Jiong (3) - China 15-12, 15-10 Gold Medalist - Poul-Erik HOYER-LARSEN - Denmark Silver Medalist - DONG Jiong - China Bronze Medalist - Rashid SIDEK - Malaysia Women's Singles - Finals (August 1, 1996) BANG Soo Hyun (3) - Korea beat AUDINA, Mia (5) - Indonesia 11-6, 11-7 Gold Medalist - BANG Soo Hyun - Korea Silver Medalist - Mia AUDINA - Indonesia Bronze Medalist - Susi SUSANTI - Indonesia COPYRIGHT 1996 BY d.shuttlenws@genie.com PERMISSION GIVEN to redistribute.