No. 4 seed Chen Jin from China Thursday marched into the semi-final of men's singles badminton at the Beijing Olympics, crushing Hsieh Yu-Hsing from Chinese Taipei 21-8, 21-14.

The dark horse from Chinese Taipei who surprisingly downed Malaysian veteran Wong Choong Hann in the third round, has already made a historical record for the island as its first men's singles player to reach the last 8 at the Olympic Games.

Hsieh Yu-Hsing, however, apparently failed to pose great challenge to the world No. 4 from China, as he could not keep up with the speed and penetrate the solid defence of the opponent.

"The speed of the shuttlecocks is a little bit slower. As a result, I could not smash shots as powerful as in the previous matches," said disappointed Hsieh, admitting that Chen enjoys some advantage over him in capabilities.

While Chen Jin attributed his victory to full preparedness.

"It's our first encounter, and I didn't expect to meet him in the quarter-final," said the 25-year-old. "But I've done enough preparations before the match, tactically and psychologically."

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2008)