Olympics Sydney 2000 Mixed Doubles final - Minarti Timur /Tri Kushharyanto vs Zhang Jun / Gao Ling

by Andrew
(Malaysia)

The #1 seeds were the Indonesian team of Minarti Timur and Tri Kushharyanto. They would make it to the final but they were beaten there by the Chinese pair of Gao Ling and Zhang Jun, the 2nd seeds.

Gao and Zhang had only been playing together for a year prior to the Sydney Olympics, and they had lost twice earlier in the year to Timur and Kusharyanto. They had a difficult road to the final, winning three-set matches in both the first round and semi-final.

In the final, they looked overmatched early, as Timur/Kusharyanto won the first game 15-1. But Zhang/Gao fought back and won the final two games to win a surprising gold medal.

The bronze medal match was unusual as it consisted of two European teams, the British pair Joanne Wright-Goode and Simon Archer, who defeated the Danish team of Rikke Olsen and Michael Søgaard.

This was the first big title for Zhang and Gao but not the last. They would win the World Championships in 2001, the All-England Titles in 2001, 2003, and 2006, and defend their Olympic title in 2004.

In this match you can see the tension and intensity from both pair. After all indeed an epic match.

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