Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota, the world's No. 3 pairing, were crowned women's doubles champions on Sunday at the All England Open badminton tournament, one of the few sporting events that went ahead amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Later Sunday, in the last of the day's five finals, the sixth-ranked men's doubles team of Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe also tasted victory, making it two titles for the host of the upcoming Olympics and giving the nation some good news amid the COVID-19 gloom.
Fukushima and Hirota beat China's Du Yue and Li Yinhui 21-13, 21-15 in the opening game held at Arena Birmingham after they defeated seventh-ranked Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo in an all-Japanese semifinal on Saturday.