3 Chinese pairs in badminton doubles semis

Sydney: China moved closer to their expected clean sweep of the medals in the Olympic badminton women's doubles on Wednesday when all the three Chinese pairs qualified for the semi-finals.

Fei Ge and Jun Gu, the top seeds, world number one pair and defending champions, swept past Indonesia's Eti Lesmina and Chynthia Tuwankotta 15-3, 15-5 in just 29 minutes. The number two pair of Huang Nanyan and Yang Wei had to work a bit harder to dismiss Dutch seventh seeds Lotte Jonathans and Nicole van Hooren 15-10, 15-12.

Gao Ling and Gao Yiyuan completed the trio with a 15-2, 15-7 victory over Britain's Jo Goode and Donna Kellogg.

Trying to stop the Chinese domination in the semis, where they take on Huang and Yang, will be South Koreans Chung Jae-hee and Ra Kyung-min who beat Danes Helene Kirkegaard and Rikke Olsen 12-15, 15-12, 15-5.Olsen and Goode both lost in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles earlier on Wednesday.



(c) Reuters Limited.