USA Made History in 2005 IBF World Championship Men's Doubles Source: BadmintonCentral.com Author: Kwun Han Today USA Men's Doubles pair of Tony/Howard made badminton history by beating Candra/Sigit in the 2005 IBF World Championships finals in 3 games. Read on to find out more about the game and my reaction to the historical win. Before today if you tell your badminton friends that USA can win the World Championships, they may think that you are completely out of your mind. However, today many badminton fans, including myself, have been rendered speechless. USA pair of Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach played brilliantly in the WC finals against legendary players Candra Wijaya/Sigit Budiarto (INA). A powerful Bach mainly handled the attack at the rear court while a completely refreshed and improved Tony Gunawan put enormous pressure on Candra/Sigit at the front of the court. The lethal combination has toppled one pairing from Malaysia and Denmark, and two top pairs from Indonesia to rise to this year's crown, solidly proved that it wasn't merely a lucky affair. The crowd in the Anaheim Arrowhead Pond was one of the best that one will ever find in the western hemisphere, with the whole crowd chanting "USA! USA!" against a smaller group of Indonesian supporters. I have rarely seen badminton fans so emotionally engrossed in a badminton match, and for sure never seen anything close to that in the USA. During the press conference, Candra and Sigit clearly showed their disappointment with their lost, and while this is the second time in a row they lose in the WC finals, they showed their sportmanship as they cheerfully congratulated their former close teammate and buddy Tony Gunawan for their win. It was a heart warming moment when Tony hugging Candra/Sigit as well as Indonesia head coach Christian Hadinata after the win. Howard Bach also ran into the audience stand to hug his mom for the longest amount of time. This local boy worked all his life for badminton, and today he got his recognition for it. It has been mentioned numerous times by Badminton Central Forum members that a big win by the USA team is needed to lift the status of badminton in the USA. While everyone thought that it was an improbability, today it happened. Only time will tell if this becomes the launch platform of badminton popularity in the USA. I am sure all badminton fans who have been frustrated by the lack of popularity will hope this will be so. Tony has said numerous times that his goal is to raise badminton's status in the USA. He have played badminton from 5 years old and badminton has been his life for the last 25 years. He has won all the championship that most badminton players can only dream about. Now he is fighting to make badminton a popular game in the influential country the USA, which may be his toughest match so far. Personally, it took me a while to digest what happened tonight, words like "stunned", "perplexed" regularly popped up in my head. Despite so, the reaction was probably due to a conflict between reality and my predictive system prior to the World Championships. And I believe that is understandable. I can tell that other reporters in the press room showed similar reactions in their faces. However, after watching all the matches that Tony/Howard has played, where they nearly anniliated all their opponents before the final and passionately fought in the final despite trailing in the 3rd game, I really think that Howard/Tony truely did outplay all their opponents and they truely deserved their 2005 IBF World Championship. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE USA TEAM! GO USA!! GO BADMINTON!!
Well stated, well said, well reported. I hope this will be a start for more world wide respect for badminton and a beautiful new beginning.
That was a totally awesome game to watch! Kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I almost wanted to turn off the computer after watching Lin Dan's disappointing defeat to Taufik thinking that the Indonesians are a sure-win. I'm glad I stayed up and finished watching the match. The U.S. pair seems to have the dynamics to play at the same fast and exciting speed as the Indonesians. It is indeed refreshing to see a team other than Asian and European excel in badminton. I am banking that this will motivate training of singles, MixedD and WD for future tournaments.
Great article Kwun. I bet the MD final match will be one to remember for everyone and also for you.how did u feel seeing your home team battle it out in a WC final.i bet the emotions would have been different for u even after the hundreds of matches u may have seen throughout your life. Sigh.i hope i will live to see my country's players step on the podium in the WC.there's no better feeling than that.
Just read this on cnn.com ============================================== Teammates on the Tour de Bush By REBECCA WINTERS Monday, August 22, 2005 Posted: 1550 GMT (2350 HKT) Lance Armstrong and President Bush have a lot in common. Both are Texans and avid cyclists with at least a casual interest in politics. The seven-time Tour de France winner and the leader of the free world shared the trail last weekend at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. White House press secretary Trent Duffy wouldn't say whether the pair discussed politics (Armstrong opposes the Iraq war and wants more spending on cancer research), but at the end of a two-hour, 17-mile spin, Bush gave Armstrong, whom he described as "a good rider," a T shirt and suggested, "Let's go swimming." ============================================ For his next play date, we think the President should try play backyard BBQ badminton with Howard Bach and Tony. Well, to further boosts badminton to a higher profile in the US sports arena, the IBF or BadmintonCentral.com needs to engage George Bush onto the court. Someone please flash the news to the White House. Let George Bush knows that the Americans have won another miraculous battle...just like they did in Ice hockey over the Russians in 1980 Olympic! (I think). Just a smash-thought.
congrats to howard and tony for winning the mens doubles, i like howard's speech about the sport, that this is how its played.
I remember seeing my home hero winning in final but the feeling was nothing compares to Tony & Howard triumph. I was so happy and emotional when team USA clinched the world championship point. At one stage, i was questioning myself why i was so happy and emotional since USA is not my country. I reckon we could make a grammy movie out of this story.
This is a true sport fan suppose to be. We love the sport, not just limited a smaller pool of pros, who represent certain region.
Technically, the "U.S." MD pair consisted of Asian players-Indonesian-born and Vietnamese-American born..
You're Spot On, Kwun I'd like to add that at no time during the match did I see any player dispute a line call or argue with the umpire or the service judge. I was down on the arena floor sitting by the tournament desk and couldn't see most of the court surface, but I had a good view of the players and was in a state of constant excitement. Many of the people I spoke with said they had lost hope when Tony and Howard were down 9-11 in game 3, as I had. They were saying "Oh well, a silver medal's not so bad, it's the best the USA has ever done in the World Championships." When T. & H. started turning things around, the level of excitement kicked up a couple of notches and we all went crazy at the end. Everybody was doing high fives, shaking hands with anyone nearby, and saying "Did you ever expect to see this?" I don't expect to see anything this good any time soon.
marshall, so sad we didn't meet! Tony was asked about the 11-9 score during the press conference, how he felt at that point, etc. Tony replied was, "personally, at 11-9, i ran out of gas."
This is the Lake Placid of Badminton. Except this was on a "Pond". There's something about American home field advantage.
You probably saw me I was one of the people on the live scores/statistics team (the baldheaded guy with the white beard). As I noted in my original post, lots of us ran out of gas at 11-9, so it's interesting what Tony said.
Hi Kwun, Totally agree with your article. As a resident in my youth years of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia since 1949), I am very happy with the unexpected team USA win. I happen to own a DVD of the Sydney(?) Olympics MS final, when Tony Gunawan's partner was none other than Chandra Wijaya. I hope that Gunawan will be able to stay in the US to help build a strong US badminton team in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Congratulations. Cordially yours, Cocotte
Bah, I can't believe I had to leave early and miss this match. Stupid orientations. I missed the only match that would have made me happy, but I got to watch all the crap finals before where all the players I wanted to win lost. :crying: Oh well, at least Yang/Zhang wtfpwned Gao/Huang the night before.
No question, this was an amazing match to watch in person. Being relatively new to the sport, I didn't have quite the same expectations of most people, that the US team didn't have a chance. I'm naive, perhaps, but I fully expected them to win, especially after seeing how they seemed in control of their semi-final match the day before. I have to say that the atmosphere in Arrowhead Pond for this match was almost certainly a factor in the match. The support from the crowd - the screaming and yelling and raw emotion from the stands - rivaled that of many other, so-called "major" sports in the US. If I had been Gunawan or Bach, it would certainly have pumped ME up! (I personally lost my voice for almost a full day afterwards, I was so caught up in it) Thanks, Kwun, for the write-up - it brought back some vivid memories of this historical event!