Asian Games 2023: Satwik-Chirag win historic gold medal in badminton men’s doubles

Indian shuttler duo Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy clinched the gold medal to create history in the ongoing 19th Asian Games badminton men’s doubles in Hangzhou, on Saturday.

The world number 3 ranked pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy beat the Republic of Korea’s Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho with the scoreline of 21-18, 21-16 in the final to secure India’s first-ever gold medal in badminton at the Asian Games.

This was the fifth title of the year for the ace Indian duo Chirag-Satwik, following the major wins at the Swiss Open, Asia Championships, Indonesia Open, and Korea Open.

HISTORY CREATED 🔥🔥🔥

Badminton: Satwik/Chirag win GOLD medal in Men's Doubles after beating Korean pair 21-18, 21-16.

Its India's 1st EVER Badminton GOLD medal at Asian Games (Singles or Doubles | Individual or Team). #AGwithIAS #IndiaAtAsianGames pic.twitter.com/hh1g1aRRM3

— India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) October 7, 2023

Korean pair Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho upset the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions Chinese Taipei’s Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin in the semi-final encounter. The Koreans are ranked 15th in the world, dominated the early phases of the play, and led for most of the opening game.

At the end of the first set of the game, the scoreline was 18-15 in the Korean pair’s favor, the opener seemed to be going Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho’s way but Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy bounceback brilliantly and scored six back-to-back points to take the lead.

𝐀𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 🥇👑@himantabiswa | @sanjay091968 | @lakhaniarun1 #AsianGloryAchieved#AsianGames2022#AsianGames#TeamIndia#IndiaontheRise#BadmintonTwitter#Badminton pic.twitter.com/iDYsBcJnrT

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) October 7, 2023

In the second game, the two teams competed neck to neck in initial exchanges, and the Indian pair led by just a single point going into the mid-game just before the break. However, after the restart of the play, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy began to break the shackles and won the game comfortably to wrap up in 57 minutes.

Indian contingent finished their badminton campaign at Asian Games 2023 with three medals in the account. Earlier, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were also part of the Indian men’s contingent which clinched a silver medal last week. Veteran shuttler HS Prannoy won a bronze in the men’s singles event in Hangzhou.