RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - China missed out on Olympic women's doubles badminton gold for the first time since the 1992 Barcelona Games on Tuesday when Tang Yuanting and Yu Yang lost in the semi-finals.

They went down to Denmark's Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen in a 21-16, 14-21, 21-19 thriller.

"We were thinking about the medal and that is really stupid to do," said Rytter Juhl. "It was 19-20 and I said to Christinna, 'Come on, now we take it'."

It was a second blow to China in the space of 24 hours after their hopes of repeating their 2012 Olympic sweep of all five golds were shattered when both their pairs were knocked out in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles.

Rytter Juhl and Pedersen's win guaranteed European badminton powerhouse Denmark only their fifth Olympic medal in the sport.