China's Jiong threatens RI supremacy
China's Jiong threatens RI supremacy
ATLANTA, Georgia (AFP): It would have been odds on for an Indonesian to win the Olympic men's singles title six months ago, with Joko Suprianto, winner of the World Cup and Grand Prix titles, and fellow Indonesian Heryanto Arbi, the world champion, the best bets.
Now however, a new threat has arisen -- Dong Jiong, the fleet- footed Chinese player who leapt four places to world number one just a month after the Olympic qualifying cut-off date in April. However in the women's singles, the opposite is happening with Indonesia's Susi Susanti hopeful of retaining the gold medal she won in Barcelona.
Bang Soo-hyun, Korea's new world number one and the All- England champion, and Ye Zhaoying, the winner of the World Championship, the World Cup and the World Grand Prix titles, began to beat her with increasing regularity.
But Susi has come back into the reckoning and has not given up hope of her second gold.
Just after reaching number one, however, Dong missed a match point in the Thomas Cup world team finals in Hongkong and was beaten by the elegant left-handed skills of the All-England champion from Denmark, Poul-Erik Hoyer.
Other men's singles medal candidates are Alan Budikusuma, the world silver medalist from South Korea Park Sung-woo, and the Commonwealth champion from Malaysia Rashid Sidek. Susi, however, has her future mapped out.
The balletically graceful woman who won badminton's first Olympic gold medal during the sport's Games debut in Barcelona four years ago, plans to win another gold in Atlanta, then to retire, and to marry the man to whom she has been engaged for the past five years.
That is Alan, her fellow Indonesian who added his own touch of Mills and Boone to the sentimental plot by winning the Olympic men's singles title within two hours of his fiancee's historic success.
Though Alan is still ranked as high as four in the world, it is probably asking too much to expect him to become champion again, but Susi has enjoyed such a marked revival of form that she is probably the unofficial favorite to make a golden ending.
"I have worked hard and my Uber Cup results were good. I will to try to improve a little more before the Olympics," said the modest-mannered legend who scored victories over both her main rivals, Bang Soo-hyun of South Korea and Ye Zhaoying of China in the world team finals in Hongkong in May.
It is unlikely that others will pose a serious threat to Susi's one remaining competitive ambition, but medal challenges could come from Lim Xiaoqing, the China-born Swede who won the 1995 All-England, Camilla Martin, the European champion from Denmark.
Men's doubles
Although the men's singles is wide open, there is no doubt that the Indonesians, Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky, the World and All-England champions, are overwhelming favorites for the men's doubles gold medal.
The women's doubles gold looks likely to be settled between the world number ones from China, Ge Fei and Gu Jun, and the World Champions from South Korea, Gil Young-Ah and Jang Hye-Ock, but by far the most interesting doubles event will be the mixed. That is because this event is being included in the Olympic schedule for the first time and that has attracted Park Joo-bong, widely regarded as the best all-round doubles player of all time, to come out of retirement.
The South Korean legend retired after taking the Olympic men's doubles gold in Barcelona, briefly returned to lead his country to the Sudirman Cup world team title in Birmingham in 1993, and made his second comeback in November in order to win gold in the new Olympic event.
Park and his new partner Ra Kyung-min, who comfortably won the All-England title in Birmingham in March, will face challenges from the World Grand Prix titleholders from Indonesia Trikus Heryanto and Minarti Timur, the All-England finalists from Great Britain Simon Archer and Julie Bradbury, the two top six Chinese pairs Chen Xingdong/Peng Xingyong and Liu Jianjun/Sun Man, and the European champions from Denmark Michael Sogaard and Rikke Olsen.
But the likelihood is that enduring speed and skill of the slim-limbed 31-year-old will be the decisive factor, and that Park will retire with honor enhanced to recontinue his lecturing and coaching job at Seoul University.
Whatever the outcome the mixed doubles will provide a uniquely fascinating few days for spectators who will be watching the only event in any Olympic sport in which men and women compete together.