Coming at you: Kim Astrup (right) and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark in action against Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung Jae of South Korea in the final. — AFP
PETALING JAYA: It was not the fairytale ending that shuttlers Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen were looking for in the World Championships final but both were still left savouring their biggest career success to date.
The Danish men’s doubles pair came close to capturing the gold in front of 10,000 passionate fans at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen but fell just short against South Korea’s brilliant duo of Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae, agonisingly losing 21-14, 15-21, 17-21 in 69 minutes.
Despite the defeat, it was still an incredible achievement for Astrup, 31 and Rasmussen, 34 to win the silver.
The Danes, ranked No. 11 in the world, had an inconsistent year with only the Canada Open and gold in the European Games in July to show for prior to the world meet.
Astrup-Rasmussen had not gone past the quarter-finals in all their other tournaments this year.
But buoyed by the home support, the duo rose to the occasion and defied their age and ranking to pull off a spectacular show to make it into the final.
The homesters toppled Malaysia’s 2021 bronze medallists Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi, India’s Asian champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and China’s world No. 3 Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang en route to the final.
“This silver means a lot to us,” said Astrup.
“It is the best result in our career and not many Danish men’s doubles pairs have managed to reach the final of the World Championships.
“And we got to experience this on home soil, so we are very grateful.”
The last Danish men’s doubles pair to win a silver at the world meet was Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen 10 years ago.
