Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino gave Japan its first ever badminton mixed doubles Olympic medal on Friday, when they captured the bronze in the third-place playoff at the Tokyo Games.
Watanabe and Higashino secured a spot on the podium by defeating Hong Kong pair Tang Chun-man and Tse Ying-suet 21-17, 23-21 at Musashino Forest Sport Plaza.
"At the end it came down to who was the most determined to win," said the 24-year-old Watanabe, who also became the first Japanese man to win an Olympic badminton medal.