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Badminton star An Se-young wins 1st career Asian championship

Published: 13 Apr. 2026, 09:37

Korea's An Se-young celebrates after defeating China's Wang Zhiyi in the women's singles final match at the Badminton Asia Championship in Ningbo, eastern China, on April 12. [AFP/YONHAP]

Badminton star An Se-young won her first career Asian championships singles title Sunday in China.

An, the world No. 1, defeated second-ranked Wang Zhiyi of China in three games, 21-12, 17-21, 21-18, for the women's singles gold medal at the Badminton Asia Championships at Ningbo Olympic Sports Center in Ningbo, China.

The Asian title had been the only major crown missing in An's decorated resume. The 24-year-old previously won an Olympic gold medal in 2024, a world title in 2023 and an Asian Games gold medal in 2023.

Against Wang, An rallied from an early 5-4 deficit with three straight points, and had streaks of five and then four points in a row.

Wang fought back to take the second game, winning the first five points and never relinquishing her control.

An responded by building a 9-3 lead in the third game. Wang battled back to pull even at 15-15 before An reeled off four straight points en route to her title.

An is now 19-5 all time against Wang.

According to the Badminton Korea Association, An is just the fourth Korean player to win titles at these four competitions over their careers.

Park Joo-bong and his doubles partner Kim Moon-soo won the world title and the Asian title in 1985, then the Asian Games gold medal in 1986 and the Olympic gold medal in 1992.

Kim Dong-moon followed suit in the mixed doubles with two different female partners. He teamed up with Gil Young-ah for the 1996 Olympic gold medal, and then combined with Ra Kyung-min for the 1998 Asian Games gold, the 1998 Asian Championships gold and the 1999 world title.

Korea collected two more titles in Ningbo on Sunday.

Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, world No. 1 in the men's doubles, beat countrymen Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju for their first Asian title together.

Kim Jae-hyeon and Jang Ha-jeong, ranked 147th, grabbed the surprising mixed doubles title after their third-ranked opponents from Thailand, Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Supissara Paewsampran, withdrew due to an unspecified injury suffered in their semifinal win over No. 1 pair, Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping of China.

Kim and Jang staged a couple of upsets along the way, as they knocked off the world No. 4 duo from Malaysia, Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, in the quarterfinals, and defeated the 10th-ranked team from Indonesia, Jafar Hidayatullah and Felisha Pasaribu, in the round of 16.

Yonhap