Indonesia wins its first gold of Olympics

ATHENS, Greece, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia won the Olympic men's badminton singles title Saturday, defeating Shon Seung Mo of South Korea in straight sets.

Hidayat prevailed by scores of 15-8, 15-7.

It was the first gold medal of the Games for Indonesia and its fourth overall. At the Sydney Olympics, Indonesia won six medals with one of them being gold.

In the bronze medal match, Indonesia's Soni Dwi Kuncoro beat Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand, 15-11, 17-16.

The women's doubles final saw a battle of the two top seeds, both from China with the No. 1 seeds winning out. Zhang Jiewen and Yang Wei beat Huang Sui and Gao Ling, 7-15, 15-4, 15-8.

"My expectation was to win a gold medal," Gao said. "In the last minutes we were feeling very exhausted. At the end of the ceremony, my partner collapsed."

In the women's doubles bronze medal match, the South Korean team of Ra Kyung Min and Lee Kyung Won defeated China's Zhao Tingting and Wei Yili, 10-15, 15-9, 15-7.