The Global times reports that China’s Lin Dan was stunned by little-known South Korean Choi Ho-jin in the badminton final at the fifth East Asian Games in Hong Kong Sunday, but the world No. 2 blamed his tight schedule throughout the year for this rare defeat.
“It’s hard to play every single tournament during the year,” complained “Super Dan.”
“I played in the National Games, the international events and now it’s the East Asian Games. Even so, I still have to play for my club afterward. I traveled a lot all over (during) the year and haven’t trained regularly for quite a while. I’m so tired,” he added.
Though feeling sorry that Lin failed to claim gold, Chinese badminton fans expressed their understanding to what Lin had said.
“It’s no big deal (losing). I can see he’s too exhausted after playing a lot of games. Just let him take a break,” said an anonymous fan on sohu.com.
Lin’s defeat in 41 minutes shocked a Hong Kong crowd that had fully expected China’s top male player to take the gold medal with ease
