Badminton pair Satoko Suetsuna and Miyuki Maeda fell short in their bid to reach the final of the women's doubles at the Beijing Olympic Games, going down to South Korea's Lee Kyung Won and Lee Hyo Jung in the semifinals Wednesday.
Suetsuna and Maeda, the world's No. 8 pair who upset China's defending Olympic champions, Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen, in the quarterfinals, came within one point of taking the first game but allowed the fourth-ranked South Koreans to win the next four points and go on to win 22-20, 21-15.
The result at Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium put Suetsuna and Maeda in the bronze medal match to be played on Friday, when they aim to become the first Japanese medalists in badminton since the sport was added to the Olympic program at the 1992 Barcelona Games.