LONDON — A few days after being eliminated from the women's badminton competition, a pair of Russian women won an Olympic bronze medal Saturday.
Valeria Sorokina and Nina Vislova didn't make it through the group stage of the tournament, but they were put into the quarterfinals after four teams were disqualified for trying to lose matches to manipulate the pairings.
Sorokina and Vislova won their medal by beating Alex Bruce and Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-10. Bruce and Li had also been eliminated and then restored to the competition when two teams from South Korea and others from China and Indonesia were kicked out.
Later Saturday, Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei of China will meet Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa of Japan in the final.
In men's doubles, Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark upset top-ranked Chung Jae-sung and Lee Yong-dae of South Korea 17-21, 21-18, 22-20. The Danes will next face four-time world champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng of China in the Saturday's final.
Cai and Fu, who lost in the final at the 2008 Beijing Games, defeated Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia 21-9, 21-19.
"It would mean so much to us as a pair (to win this time) and so much for the Chinese team," Fu said.
Chung and Lee had beaten Boe and Mogensen five of six times in the last year, but the Danes rallied from a game down to force a third. They carried the momentum into the decider, losing the lead only twice.
They were first to match point but it was saved by Lee, a teenage mixed doubles gold medalist in Beijing. On the second, Mogensen hit a lift to the deep right corner and Lee left the shuttlecock, thinking it was going out.
It wasn't.
Earlier, Cai and Fu easily beat the Malaysian pair they had lost to in the All England Open finals of 2007 and 2011.
"In the first set, the Chinese were playing really fast and we were thinking too much," Boon Heong. "We tried to adapt to the speed but by the second set it was too late, and the Chinese were away."
The Malaysians will meet the South Koreans for the bronze.
Also, the women's final between Wang Yihan and Li Xuerui guaranteed China a second gold medal.