Lars Passke and Jonas Rasmussen, the badminton men's couple from Denmark, won a quarterfinal at the Beijing Olympic Games on Wednesday, becoming the sole non-Asian pair in the semifinals.

They beat Michal Logosz and Robert Mateusiak from Poland at 17-21, 21-11, 21-15.

"Our experiences help us win the match," said Rasmussen, one of the Danish pair, while Logosz from Poland said "we can not keep our concentration for an hour, but they can, and so they win."

The match lasted one hour and Rasmussen, 31, said "I feel good and relieved" after the competition.

On facing the opponents in the semifinal, or the winner of the quarterfinal between Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong from Malaysia and Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan from Indonesia, Rasmussen said "both pairs are strong and we have a 50-50 chance to beat either of them."

The other pairs for the men's doubles semifinals are Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun from China, Lee Jae Jin and Hwang Ji Man from South Korea.

(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2008)