BIRMINGHAM, England, March 9 -- Olympic champion Lin Dan led the Chinese badminton team to sweep all the five titles in All England Badminton Open on Sunday.
In a replay of the Beijing Olympic final, Lin upset current world number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia 21-19, 21-12 for his fourth men's singles victory in Birmingham.
Wang Yihan, 21, stunned Danish top-seeded Tine Rasmussen 21-19,21-23, 21-11 to win her first major title in her second All England.
China also captured all the three doubles golds to become the first nation since Denmark in 1948 to win all five events at this prestigious tournament.
While they had a clean sweep in the 1987 world championships in Beijing, it is the first time for them to collect all titles overseas.
Chinese head coach Li Yongbo believed that glory came out of harder work.
"Definitely Chinese are the best in the tournament. I don't know if in every event, but they are the best this time.
"We have the best players and best coaches and they work closely together. And most of all, they train really hard. I can say no one else could work harder. That's exactly the reason why we are successful."
Chinese had booked women's doubles gold and silver before Zhang Yawen and Zhao Tingting beat Cheng Sui and Zhao Yunlei 21-13, 21-15 in an all-Chinese final, and third seeds He Hanbin and Yu Yang added mixed doubles title, fighting back from a game down to beat South Korean duo Sung Hyun and Ha Jung Eun 13-21, 21-15, 21-9.
Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng held their nerves and completed the sweep with a 21-17, 21-15 victory over Han Sang Hoon and Hwang Ji Man of South Korea.
The final between Lin and Lee, the top two players in the world, turned out to be another lop-sided one after Beijing where the Chinese sensation thumped Lee 21-12, 21-8.
Although the first game had twists and saw Lin come back superbly from 19-17 down to take the next four points, he reeled off seven points in a row from 14-12 to 21-12 to register his ninth victory over the Malaysian in their last 10 meetings.
"Even the first game, I felt it's under control although I didn' t handle the situation well at some points and became impatient. But I soon reconcentrated and won back," said Lin.
"I think today I played well and I was totally composed," he added.
Lee, apparently upset with another heavy loss to his arch-rival, admitted that Lin enjoyed the psychological advantage over him.
"Yes, I think so. But I'm ok. I hope I can try again and I'll never give up," said Lee, playing in his first All England final.
"Today we still had a good match. I had chance when leading 19-17 in the first game but I squandered a few points by easy mistakes. I don't know. I lost focus. If I could have snatched the first game, it could be a different result."
Lee also promised to try different ways to beat Lin.
"I think Lin played even a lot better than in the Olympics. He improved his speed and attacking. He's a good attacker and has good speed. Maybe I have to break his rhythm next time."
Coach Li Yongbo also responded to China's controversial absence from international events for months this year.
"Each team has its own arrangement and we did that upon players' need. They need rest. Can't you say it's a bad decision today?
"We don't think that much. It's nothing weird. But I hope other teams won't follow our example. They won't have the same result," Li said with a smile. (Xinhua)
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