Chinese Fight Back to Win Badminton Gold

China's Zhang Jun and Gao Ling recovered from a first game disaster to beat Indonesia's Tri Kusharyanto and Minarti Timur and take the Olympic badminton mixed doubles gold medal on Thursday.

The Chinese second seeds scored just one point in a nine-minute opening game but fought back brilliantly to win 1-15 15-13 15-11 against the world's top-ranked pair.

The Indonesians had beaten their Chinese opponents twice this year and must have been glancing towards the nearby podium when they took the first game barely breaking sweat. But Zhang and Gao were a different proposition in the second, playing far more aggressively to build a 12-9 lead. The Indonesians hit back to edge 13-12 ahead only for the Chinese to take the game. They continued their run by building a 4-0 lead in the decider only for the favourites to claw back to 4-3.

The frantic action was all taking place in front of a wild crowd of screaming fans of both countries, producing a great atmosphere. Zhang was reaching incredible heights to rain down fierce smashes at Timur and the tactic paid off as a run of seven points took the Chinese to 11-3 Again the Indonesians fought back to trail 11-13 with Kusharyanto making one spectacular save to prevent a match point.But it was a temporary reprieve as a net cord took the Chinese to the brink and an overhit Kusharyanto return made them Olympic champions.

Earlier, in a tense bronze medal play-off, Simon Archer and Jo Goode beat Danes Michael Sogaard and Rikke Olsen 15-4 12-15 17-14 to win Britain's first ever badminton medal. The Britons, who had led Kusharyanto and Timur by a game and 10-1 in Wednesday's semifinal, again started strongly with Archer, despite nursing a pulled muscle in his chest, particularly authoritative.

However, the Danes grew in confidence in the second and took it 15-12. The third game proved to be a monumental clash with a call for a referee's ruling on a serving fault at 9-9 adding to the drama. Archer and Goode managed to edge 11-9 ahead but then had to save two match points at 13-14 before coming through.

"It was so hard to lift ourselves after yesterday but once we got out there we really, really wanted it," Goode said. "I never thought I'd feel like this after playing for bronze but I'm just so incredibly proud," Archer added. "I'd had visions of the British flag flying up there but it's not in the position I want it to be. I'm really pleased for us and for British badminton that we've got our first medal but I'll always know it should have been gold."