Russia wins 1st badminton medal

Russia's Valeria Sorokina, facing camera, and Nina Vislova, celebrate after winning women's doubles badminton bronze medal match against Canada's Alex Bruce and Michelle Li, unseen, at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Russia has won its first medal in Olympic badminton after Valeria Sorokina and Nina Vislova beat Alex Bruce and Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-10 in the playoff for bronze of the scandal-tainted women’s doubles on Saturday.

Both the pairs had failed to advance from group play, but were dropped into the quarterfinals when four other pairs from China, South Korea and Indonesia were disqualified for trying to lose their group matches to gain a favourable draw in the last eight.

The Russians had already beaten the Canadians in group play. Bruce and Li, also trying to win their team’s first badminton medal, won only one match out of six in the quarterfinals.