Thai badminton champs move into knock-out stage in Paris

Former world champions  Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai successfully moved to the knock-out stage despite their loss in the badminton group stage final round of the 2024 Olympics at Porte de la Chapelle Arena at Paris on Monday.

The Thai top mixed doubles pair whose career highlights include the 2021 World Championships gold medals in Huela lost a three-game battle to reigning world champions Seo Seung-Jae and Chae Yoo-jung of South Korea 21-16 10-21 15-21 in the last round robin showdown of Group B.

However, they were still able to book their spot in the last eight elimination stage as the group runners-up. Awaiting them in the next round are the 2020 Games bronze medalists Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino of Japan. It will be a rematch between the four from the Tokyo Games, where the Japanese prevailed.

In women’s doubles, Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai squandered seven match points and lost their second Group D round robin match to dark horses Maiken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen of Denmark 22-20, 21-23, 22-24.

Hope is not totally gone for the Thai pair but they need to beat Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee from South Korea in their last group stage match to advance to the quarter-finals.

There was some further good news for Thailand as Bunjong Sinsiri beat Jesus Cova of Venezuela 3-2 in the round of 16 of the men’s 63.5kg category at Arena Paris Nord in Villepinte. Bunjong needs to overcome his next big hurdle Erislandy Alvarez of Cuba for a win that will guarantee him a bronze in Paris.