Loh
12-29-2006, 01:00 AM
December 29, 2006
The Jarkarta Post
Bad year all around for nat'l shuttlers
Primastuti Handayani
It was a gloomy year for Indonesian badminton. Winning only 14 titles from 11 of 22 tournaments held by the World Badminton Federation (BWF), our national shuttlers' performances were way behind those in world powerhouse China.
Indonesia flopped at the oldest All England tournament, the most prestigious World Championships and also did worse than expected at the world's second-biggest sporting event, the Asian Games.
At the All England, China scooped four titles through Lin Dan and Xie Xingfang in the men's and women's singles, respectively, and women's doubles pairs Gao Ling/Huang Sui and mixed doubles Zhang Jun/Gao Ling, leaving one title in the men's doubles to Danish pair Jens Eriksen/Martin Lundgaard Hansen.
Eight months later in Madrid, Lin and Xie repeated their success by winning the worlds, Gao/Huang also took the women's doubles title with men's doubles Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun completing China's success. Only British pairs managed to spoil a total Chinese clean sweep by setting up an all-England final with Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms taking the mixed doubles title, defeating Donna Kellogg/Robert Blair.
It was a slightly different story in Doha. At the 15th Asian Games, it was Indonesian badminton bad-boy Taufik Hidayat under the spotlight. Taufik, already infamous for his on court antics -his early walk out of the China Openand a later off-court accusation from a waitress, who claimed to have given birth to his child, ended up taking the glory.
Taufik reckons he had a good reason to win. In Madrid, he said, his eyes were set on the Asiad gold as a gift to National Sports Council (KONI) chairman and father-in-law Agum Gumelar.
He kept his word.
In the much-awaited final against Lin, Taufik unleashed all his skills, tricks and energy to tame the "Super Dan" and save Indonesia from embarrassment. Another gold at the Asiad was surprisingly won by ten-pin bowler Ryan Leonard Lalisang.
Indonesian men's doubles Luluk Hadiyanto/Alvent Yulianto also made it to an Asiad final but they bowed down to Malaysians Koo Kian Keat/Tan Beng Hong, who ironically were coached by Indonesia's 1996 Olympics and 1998 Asian Games gold medalist Rexy Mainaky.
In the team, without any replacement for Taufik, Indonesia failed, taking only a bronze.
Earlier this year, Indonesian men only managed to make the semifinals of the Thomas Cup in Japan. Worse still, the women failed to reach the Uber Cup final round for the first time in history.
Doubles coordinator Christian Hadinata acknowledges the poor result.
"Our graph is going down this year. We didn't earn any titles in prestigious events. There were some titles in regular tournaments but they were less phenomenal compared to the worlds or All England," he said.
"Our Thomas Cup team, for the second time, only reached the semifinals."
"On averages, we did not reach our best this year."
Though Indonesia earned a gold, a silver and two bronzes in the Asian Games, the result was below the expectation of two gold medals for the sport.
"Earning a gold at the Asian Games showed that Indonesia still exists. But for next year,not enough," Christian said.
For 2007, the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) has set a target of winning back the Sudirman Cup mixed teams championship and golds in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
"We haven't decided if we will field seniors, juniors or a mix of both at the SEA Games," Christian said. "But I call on every athlete to have an individual target, and that should be improving their world ranking. Next year will be very crucial for our shuttlers as the BWF will use the Super Series as a qualifying round for the Olympics."
The Super Series will feature 12 tournaments in China, Indonesia, Britain, Germany, Japan and Malaysia, among other offering prize money of at least US$200,000.
Badminton has contributed the nation's Olympic gold medal tally for many years since Alan Budikusuma and Susy Susanti's mixed doubles success in 1992 that was continued by men's doubles pair Rexy Mainaky/Ricky Soebagja in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996 men's doubles pair Candra Wijaya/Tony Gunawan in Sydney, Australia, in 2000 and singles player Taufik in Athens, in 2004.
Sports observer Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar, who is also the PBSI's secretary-general, suggested the body field only juniors at the SEA Games as part of a rejuvenation process.
"PBSI must focus the seniors on the Super Series next year as a requirement to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We can pick winners at the national championships to represent Indonesia at the SEA Games. Sports officials should not be demanding gold medals from the SEA Games. The juniors should be focused for the 2010 Asiad in Guangzhou."
With the emergence of other countries like Singapore and Germany in the women's game Germany sent two women's singles player to the worlds' semifinals in September Indonesia must work harder.
Women's singles coach Hendrawan, who is now moving to the men's singles, believes the women will bounce back in the next three years.
"Don't expect the girls to show some improvement every few weeks. By winning the Dutch Open recently, they showed they have the skills and capability. They need more chances," he said.
Indonesia's Adriyanti Firdasari and women's doubles pair Rani Mundiasti/Endang Nursurgianti won the two-star Dutch Open in November.
"They need more competition in the one- or two-star tournaments.send them to five-star events as they will meet top seeded players and crash in the early rounds. It won't help boost their confidence," Hendrawan said.
Christian said the implementation of the 21-rally point scoring system starting this year also influenced national shuttlers' performances.
"The new scoring system has made shuttlers' performance similar -only about speed and power. But not all of them can adjust to it easily."
With so much to achieve and so little time, PBSI must immediately recruit young talents and send them to tournaments overseas to groom them for the biggest mission; the 2008 Olympics.
The Jarkarta Post
Bad year all around for nat'l shuttlers
Primastuti Handayani
It was a gloomy year for Indonesian badminton. Winning only 14 titles from 11 of 22 tournaments held by the World Badminton Federation (BWF), our national shuttlers' performances were way behind those in world powerhouse China.
Indonesia flopped at the oldest All England tournament, the most prestigious World Championships and also did worse than expected at the world's second-biggest sporting event, the Asian Games.
At the All England, China scooped four titles through Lin Dan and Xie Xingfang in the men's and women's singles, respectively, and women's doubles pairs Gao Ling/Huang Sui and mixed doubles Zhang Jun/Gao Ling, leaving one title in the men's doubles to Danish pair Jens Eriksen/Martin Lundgaard Hansen.
Eight months later in Madrid, Lin and Xie repeated their success by winning the worlds, Gao/Huang also took the women's doubles title with men's doubles Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun completing China's success. Only British pairs managed to spoil a total Chinese clean sweep by setting up an all-England final with Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms taking the mixed doubles title, defeating Donna Kellogg/Robert Blair.
It was a slightly different story in Doha. At the 15th Asian Games, it was Indonesian badminton bad-boy Taufik Hidayat under the spotlight. Taufik, already infamous for his on court antics -his early walk out of the China Openand a later off-court accusation from a waitress, who claimed to have given birth to his child, ended up taking the glory.
Taufik reckons he had a good reason to win. In Madrid, he said, his eyes were set on the Asiad gold as a gift to National Sports Council (KONI) chairman and father-in-law Agum Gumelar.
He kept his word.
In the much-awaited final against Lin, Taufik unleashed all his skills, tricks and energy to tame the "Super Dan" and save Indonesia from embarrassment. Another gold at the Asiad was surprisingly won by ten-pin bowler Ryan Leonard Lalisang.
Indonesian men's doubles Luluk Hadiyanto/Alvent Yulianto also made it to an Asiad final but they bowed down to Malaysians Koo Kian Keat/Tan Beng Hong, who ironically were coached by Indonesia's 1996 Olympics and 1998 Asian Games gold medalist Rexy Mainaky.
In the team, without any replacement for Taufik, Indonesia failed, taking only a bronze.
Earlier this year, Indonesian men only managed to make the semifinals of the Thomas Cup in Japan. Worse still, the women failed to reach the Uber Cup final round for the first time in history.
Doubles coordinator Christian Hadinata acknowledges the poor result.
"Our graph is going down this year. We didn't earn any titles in prestigious events. There were some titles in regular tournaments but they were less phenomenal compared to the worlds or All England," he said.
"Our Thomas Cup team, for the second time, only reached the semifinals."
"On averages, we did not reach our best this year."
Though Indonesia earned a gold, a silver and two bronzes in the Asian Games, the result was below the expectation of two gold medals for the sport.
"Earning a gold at the Asian Games showed that Indonesia still exists. But for next year,not enough," Christian said.
For 2007, the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) has set a target of winning back the Sudirman Cup mixed teams championship and golds in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
"We haven't decided if we will field seniors, juniors or a mix of both at the SEA Games," Christian said. "But I call on every athlete to have an individual target, and that should be improving their world ranking. Next year will be very crucial for our shuttlers as the BWF will use the Super Series as a qualifying round for the Olympics."
The Super Series will feature 12 tournaments in China, Indonesia, Britain, Germany, Japan and Malaysia, among other offering prize money of at least US$200,000.
Badminton has contributed the nation's Olympic gold medal tally for many years since Alan Budikusuma and Susy Susanti's mixed doubles success in 1992 that was continued by men's doubles pair Rexy Mainaky/Ricky Soebagja in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996 men's doubles pair Candra Wijaya/Tony Gunawan in Sydney, Australia, in 2000 and singles player Taufik in Athens, in 2004.
Sports observer Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar, who is also the PBSI's secretary-general, suggested the body field only juniors at the SEA Games as part of a rejuvenation process.
"PBSI must focus the seniors on the Super Series next year as a requirement to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We can pick winners at the national championships to represent Indonesia at the SEA Games. Sports officials should not be demanding gold medals from the SEA Games. The juniors should be focused for the 2010 Asiad in Guangzhou."
With the emergence of other countries like Singapore and Germany in the women's game Germany sent two women's singles player to the worlds' semifinals in September Indonesia must work harder.
Women's singles coach Hendrawan, who is now moving to the men's singles, believes the women will bounce back in the next three years.
"Don't expect the girls to show some improvement every few weeks. By winning the Dutch Open recently, they showed they have the skills and capability. They need more chances," he said.
Indonesia's Adriyanti Firdasari and women's doubles pair Rani Mundiasti/Endang Nursurgianti won the two-star Dutch Open in November.
"They need more competition in the one- or two-star tournaments.send them to five-star events as they will meet top seeded players and crash in the early rounds. It won't help boost their confidence," Hendrawan said.
Christian said the implementation of the 21-rally point scoring system starting this year also influenced national shuttlers' performances.
"The new scoring system has made shuttlers' performance similar -only about speed and power. But not all of them can adjust to it easily."
With so much to achieve and so little time, PBSI must immediately recruit young talents and send them to tournaments overseas to groom them for the biggest mission; the 2008 Olympics.