OLYMPICS/Taiwan duo Lee, Wang win back-to-back Olympic titles in badminton

Paris, Aug. 4 (CNA) Taiwan's Tokyo Olympic gold medalists Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) won back-to-back Olympic titles after defending their men's doubles title in badminton at the Paris Games Sunday.

The Taiwanese pairing took the victory after a hard-fought, neck-and-neck, back-and-forth match, against the world No. 1 duo from China, Liang Weikeng (梁偉鏗) and Wang Chang (王昶).

After winning the crucial first game 21-17, the Taiwanese shuttlers lost the next game 18-21 to their Chinese opponents, before Lee and Wang held their nerve to take the decisive game 3 21-19 in a 76-minute battle.

The victory makes them the first Taiwanese badminton duo to win more than one Olympic medal and the second Taiwanese competitors to ever win back-to-back Olympic gold medals.

Weightlifter Hsu Shu-ching (許淑淨) won gold medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics for Taiwan, competing under the name Chinese Taipei.

The victory is the first gold for Taiwan at the Paris Olympics and the third overall medal for the national team so far.