FLASH! RASMUSSEN, YE, GE AND GU, SIGIT AND WIJAYA WORLD'S BEST

**This NEW SHUTTLENWS flash is presented by YANG YANG BADMINTON PRODUCTS and their Southern U.S.A. agents, SPORTSNET INTERNATIONAL (Email:jumpsmash@aol.com /Tel:713-771-8905/Fax:713-771-4446)**

June 1, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Peter Rasmussen of Denmark, Ye Zhaoying of China, the pair of Ge Fei and Gu Jun of China, and the pair of Sigit and Wijaya of Indonesia were the victors in today's championship matches at the badminton world championships in Glasgow, Scotland.

Peter Rasmussen defeated Sun Jun of China in the men's singles finals that took close to two hours to play. Sun was ahead in the crucial third set 5-3 when his left lower thigh muscles began to cramp. Still in the lead at 7-3, Sun's cramping became worse and began to affect his left knee.

Rasmussen could not take advantage of Sun's condition at first, but, as the thigh and knee became more painful, Sun's mobility was hampered and Rasmussen began to tally points on Sun's errors and lack of court coverage.

The men's singles championship match scoreline: 16-17, 18-13 and 15-10 in favor of Rasmussen.

Defending women's singles champion Ye Zhaoying retained her title, beating compatriot Gong Zhichao 12-11 and 11-8.

Women's doubles Olympic gold medalists Ge Fei and Gu Jun took the title in their event, defeating compatriots Qin Yiyuan and Tang Yongshu 15-1 and 15-8.

The title was the second individual gold medal for Ge Fei at this badminton world championships. She and partner Liu Yong had taken the mixed doubles championship yesterday with a 15-5, 14-17 and 15-4 finals victory over Jens Eriksen and Marlene Thomsen of Denmark.

Men's doubles top-seeds Budiarto Sigit and Chandra Wijaya overcame the first game win and second game lead of second-seeds Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock of Malaysia to claim the men's doubles gold medal wth an 8-15, 18-17 and 15-7 victory in the last of the championship matches today.

The Malaysians had used up most of their energy in the first two sets and did not have the power and quickness remaining in their game to take the decider from the younger Indonesian pair.

Prince Edward was in attendance at the finals today and awarded the medals in all the four events.

Their two gold medals today, the mixed doubles gold medal yesterday, and the world mixed team championships gold medal last weekend confirmed China's return to supremacy in badminton. The performance of their women players with a sweep of the medals in singles and three out of four medals in the doubles underlines Chinese dominance of the women's events.

Rasmussen's men's singles gold medal coupled with Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen's Olympic Games gold medal also confirms Denmark's standing as one of the leaders in the men's singles event, although China could have had the gold medal in this event, had top-seed Dong Jiong not come down with an illness and finalist Sun Jun not sustained an injury.

(martincoe/migrossman)