Candra and Sigit come through for RI

Candra and Sigit come through for RI

Agencies Jakarta

Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto won the men's doubles final on Sunday to earn Indonesia a title in the world badminton championships in Birmingham, England.

Candra/Sigit defeated Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen of Denmark ... in the final matches, in which China triumphed in three of the five events.

China won the men's and women's singles through Xia Xuanze and Zhang Ning respectively, and the women's doubles by Gao Ling/Huang Sui.

The other victory went to South Korea in the mixed doubles, courtesy of Kim Dong-moon/Ra Kyung-min.

Candra/Sigit, who were seeded 11th in the tournament, matched their winning performance in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1997.

The win also means that Indonesia has kept the men's doubles titles in the last two editions of the biennial event after Tony Gunawan/Halim Haryanto won in 2001.

China won both singles titles as two new champions, Xia Xuanze and Zhang Ning, were crowned at the world championships.

Xia, who won the All-England Open title in this same arena three years ago, overcame the surprise finalist from Malaysia, Wong Choon Hann, in an exhausting, acrobatic and unpredictable 81-minute final by 15-6, 13-15, 15-6, AFP reported.

Zhang, who at the age of 28 may not get another chance of a major title, took her opportunity superbly, outplaying her compatriot Gong Ruina, the defending champion 11-6, 11-3 with a dazzling array of creative strokes.

However it was the men's final which was the showpiece of the afternoon's five finals, producing a wavering winner who had been odds on at the start - because he had won all seven previous encounters with Wong - but who threatened for a while to let it slip away.

Xia's pattern of playing pushes to the net or overhead drops, and seeking a lift from which to attack was a winning one, and it carried him to leads of one game and 12-9 and 13-11 in the second.

But at that stage the thought of becoming world champion appeared to affect him.

Two uncharacteristic mistakes allowed Wong back to 13-13 and the chance to escape, with two fine winners, to a third game.

"I have had 13 years experience," claimed the 25-year-old from Zhejiang.

"And it's how you learn to deal with these situations which counts. You make mistakes but you remain calm and concentrated on what you have to do."

Certainly Xia kept his sense of perspective well, twice laughing when he made mistakes, once as he fell over and on another occasion as he made an air shot under pressure.

Until six-all in the third the match remained in the balance.

Then Xia managed fitfully to get his attacks going again, forcing Wong to make more lifts and denying the Malaysian the chances to use his spectacular airborne attacks.

Xia edged gradually away to a victory which he celebrated by placing his forehead on the floor.

"It won't change my life," he said.

"This is just a step to the next stage. I want to win the Olympics."

It was the eighth time out of eight that Wong had lost to Xia. "I have to work on it physically and mentally to overcome this barrier," he reckoned.

The women's final was a much briefer affair, though it certainly had its entertaining moments.

Earlier Zhang Jun and Gao Ling also lost a world title, the mixed doubles, when they were well beaten for the second time in four months by the former champions Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung- min.

Indeed the Chinese pair might have lost more heavily to the brilliant Koreans than by 15-7, 15-8, for they were consistently outplayed and only picked up three or four consolation points at the end of each game when they were already down and out.

Kim, widely regarded as the best doubles player in the world when fully fit, has now won eight Grand Prix doubles titles in the last 16 months, and the victory was consolation for Kim's defeats in two world finals last time, two years ago in Seville.

China took the women's doubles title with Gao Ling/Huang Sui (Chn) beating compatriots Wei Yili/Zhao Tingting 15-8, 15-11.

World Badminton Championships

Results of finals on Sunday: Men's singles 5-Xia Xuanze (Chn) bt 9-Wong Choong Hann (Mas) 15-6, 13-15, 15-6 Women's singles 2-Zhang Ning (Chn) bt 4-Gong Ruina (Chn) 11-6, 11-3 Mixed doubles 9-Kim Dong-moon/Ra Kyung-min (Kor) bt 1-Zhang Jun/Gao Ling (Chn) 15-7 15-8 Women's doubles 3-Gao Ling/Huang Sui (Chn) bt 1-Wei Yili/Zhao Tingting (Chn) 15- 8, 15-11 Men's doubles 11-Sigit Budiarto/Candra Wijaya (Ina) v 4-Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen (Den) ?