Japanese wheelchair badminton star Daiki Kajiwara beat South Korea’s Yu Soo-young in three games in the men’s singles WH2 final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games on the 23rd. Winning all five of his matches at the event, he extended his international singles winning streak to 200.
According to the Chosun Ilbo and Japanese media, Kajiwara, 24, defeated Yu, 23, 2-1 (21-10, 18-21, 24-22) in the WH2 (wheelchair) men’s singles final at the Ichinomiya City General Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, retaining his Asian Para Games title in the event.
광고 문의 · 300×250Kajiwara came into the Games on a run of 195 straight international singles wins. By winning all five matches he played, he reached the 200 mark. The Tokyo Shimbun reported before the Games that he said he absolutely wanted to achieve 200 straight wins.
A deuce battle in the deciding game
The final was not easy. Kajiwara took the first game comfortably 21-10, but Yu levelled by winning the second 21-18. The third game went to deuce before Kajiwara closed it out 24-22.
It was not their first meeting in a final. Kajiwara also beat Yu in the finals of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Para Games and the 2024 and 2026 World Championships. At this year’s World Championships in Manama, Bahrain, in February, he won 23-21, 21-13.
A two-time Paralympic champion
Born in Fukuoka in 2001, Kajiwara won men’s singles gold at both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Paralympics. His win in the Paris final was recorded as his 125th straight victory at the time. At these Games, Sarina Satomi also retained her women’s singles WH1 title by beating a Chinese player.
Yu again had to settle for silver and could not get past Kajiwara, but he pushed the final to deuce in the deciding game. South Korea’s overall badminton medal tally at the Games could not be confirmed.