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<b>ASIAN BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS: CHEN GANG, MARLEVE GAIN FINALS</b>

September 4, 1998 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - China's Chen Gang upended third-seeded
teammate Luo Yigang in one of today's men's singles semifinals at the Asian
Badminton Championships in Bangkok, Thailand and gained a place in tomorrow's
championship match. Chen displayed good form in easily beating Luo 15-5 and
15-8.

According to sources close to the Chinese team, Luo was not feeling well and
may be coming down with the illness that made doubles ace Liu Yong pull out of
the tournament early this week and that forced Dai Yun to forfeit her women's
singles semifinal match against top-seed Ye Zhaoying today. Several other
players had also become ill early this week.

In the other men's singles semifinal, Marleve Mainaky used his attacking
shots to dispose of his teenaged teammate Taufik Hidayat. In the first game,
Mainaky smashed his way to an early 7-2 lead before Hidayat battled back with
good defending and accurately-placed dropshots. Mainaky though stayed slightly
ahead and reached set point. The teenager then stopped Mainaky and managed to
force a tiebreak at 14-all.

Mainaky's play was too much for Hidayat in the three-point setting and he
took the game 17-15.

In the second game, Mainaky continued his good form and was the easy winner
over a tiring Hidayat at 15-5.

In the women's singles semifinals, top-seed Ye Zhaoying of China gained a
finals berth without hitting a single shuttle when her opponent and teammate
Dai Yun woke up with a high fever and was unable to play. Second-seed Gong
Zhichao, also of China, defeated teammate Gong Ruina 11-5 and 11-5 to take the
other finals spot.

In the mixed doubles semifinals, Sun Jun, China's top men's singles player,
continued to team up well with close friend Ge Fei. The makeshift pair beat
second seeds Bambang Suprianto and Resiana Zelin of Indonesia 15-5 and 17-15.
Sun and Ge were paired up for the tournament early this week when Ge's world
champion partner Liu Yong became ill before the start of competition.

Sun and Ge will face top-seeds Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min of Korea in the
finals. The Koreans beat Chen Gang and Tang Hetian of China 15-1 and 15-5 in
the other semifinal.

Other Semifinal Results:

Men's Doubles - 
Zhang Jun/Zhang Wei (China) beat Flandy Limpele/Eng Hian (Indonesia)
17-15, 9-15, 15-12
Kang Kyung-jin/Ha Tae-kwon (Korea) beat Tony Gunawan/Halim Heryanto
(Indonesia) 6-15, 15-8, 15-12

Women's Doubles - 
Ge Fei/Gu Jun (China) beat Elisa Nathanael/Deyana Lomban (Indonesia) 15-2,
15-10
Qin Yiyuan/Tang Hetian (China) beat Yim Kyung-jin/Chung Jae-hee (Korea) 15-5,
15-5

(lyg/dsimmons)

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