China's badminton superstar Lin Dan withdrew from his men's singles semifinal at the Asian Championships Saturday, in a surprise move blamed on a recurring waist injury, state media said. Organizers of the tournament said the top seed's injury recurred in morning training, forcing the four-time world champion, five-time All England winner and reigning Asian champion to pull out, according to the Xinhua news agency. His withdrawal sends third seed Chen Jin straight to the final where he will face fifth seed Du Pengyu. Du fought back against second seed Chen Long to win 17-21, 21-16, 21-12. The final in the eastern city of Qingdao takes place Sunday. The Asian Championships are one of the last major tournaments before the London Olympics. But the forfeit will not affect Lin's Olympic ambitions, as the 28-year-old has already qualified for the Games. China's dominance of the tournament saw four Chinese semifinalists in both the men's and women's draw. And they are also guaranteed victory in the women's doubles and mixed doubles, where Chinese teammates will face off against each other for the title. In the women's draw, world No. 1 Wang Yihan beat third seed Wang Shixian 21-19, 21-12, although neither player was satisfied with their performance. “Neither of us did well today,” said Yihan. “I won only because Shixian made more mistakes.” She will face fourth seed Li Xuerui in the final after beating the promising Chen Xiaojia 21-15, 22-20. China's hopes of a clean sweep were only ruined by the men's doubles, where two Chinese pairs lost out to teams from Japan and Korea. Taiwan to host 2013 event Taiwan will host the Badminton Asia Championships in April next year, an official of a local badminton association said Saturday. Tsai Hung-peng, secretary-general of the Chinese-Taipei Badminton Association, said members of the Badminton Asia Confederation agreed unanimously to accept Taiwan's bid to host the event, scheduled to take place April 16-21, 2013 at the Taipei Arena. Tsai said Taiwan's previous experiences in organizing the Badminton Asia Youth U19 Championships in 2001 and the YONEX BWF World Junior Championships in 2011 for under-19 athletes helped the country obtain the rights.
