"Japan's home turf turned into a library": An Se-young breaks Yamaguchi's spirit and is crowned the first-ever back-to-back Asian Games champion [Nagoya Asian Games]

[Financial News] No miracle occurred on Japan's home turf. The home crowd's one-sided support was merely a hollow echo before the merciless smashes of the "Shuttlecock Queen." An Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance) finally planted the Korean flag atop an uncharted summit that no one had ever reached in the 64-year history of the Asian Games.
World No. 1 An Se-young thoroughly dominated her longtime rival, Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, ranked third, 2-0 (21-17, 21-9) in the women's singles badminton final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Ichinomiya Civic Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture on the 29th. She claimed the long-awaited gold medal.
With this victory, An Se-young, who swept the women's singles and team gold medals at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, achieved the remarkable feat of winning the event two times in a row. She completely erased the disappointment of falling in the team semifinals with a dominant gold-medal performance in the individual event.


Above all, this victory rewrote the history of Asian badminton. Since badminton was adopted as an official Asian Games sport at the 1962 Jakarta Games, An Se-young is the first athlete ever to win the women's singles title at two consecutive Games. In men's singles, Zhao Jianhua and Lin Dan, both from China, have achieved back-to-back titles. In women's singles, however, only An Se-young has successfully defended her crown and risen as a living legend.
Although it was a fateful Korea-Japan clash for the gold medal, the match turned out to be An Se-young's one-woman show. She fell behind 1-4 early in the first game as Yamaguchi launched a fierce attack, but An did not waver. Patiently closing the gap, she reeled off four straight points at 7-8 to turn the match around.
Yamaguchi threw herself at An Se-young's needle-sharp attacks aimed at both sides of the court, but it was not enough. At 20-17, An eventually took the first game with brilliant net play after a lengthy rally.




The second game was nothing short of a bombardment. After taking a 4-0 lead, An briefly let her guard down and allowed Yamaguchi to come back and take a 5-4 lead. That unleashed the "Empress's" fury. An scored eight straight points with a dazzling barrage aimed at every corner of the court, completely shattering Yamaguchi's composure.
An Se-young shut down Yamaguchi's counterattacks, which were struggling even to clear the net, with impenetrable defense. When Yamaguchi's final attack went wide at 20-9 match point, An clenched her fist and roared. It was the most exhilarating and cathartic celebration, silencing the entire country in the heart of Japan.
The victory extended An Se-young's career record against Yamaguchi to 23 wins and 15 losses.
In particular, she has now won nine straight matches since losing to Yamaguchi in last year's Korea Open final, establishing complete dominance and making even the label "nemesis" meaningless. The era of An Se-young, the unchallenged world No. 1, is now reaching the dazzling peak of its golden age.


[email protected] Jeon Sang-il Reporter