Indonesian shuttlers share guilt over failures

ATLANTA, Georgia (Agencies): Indonesian badminton players celebrated their Olympic medal winning run here on Thursday -- in grief.

The lunch get-together, which followed an evaluation meeting held at the homestay of the Badminton Association of Indonesia's chairman Soerjadi, turned mournful, with most of the players taking the guilt for making a futile campaign.

Susi Susanti, the dethroned women's singles champion, caught everyone's attention when she expressed regret for failing to retain her title.

"I'm sorry to all Indonesian people who rested their hopes on me," a jaded Susi said. Susi, who was probably making her last Olympic appearance, due to her marriage with Alan Budikusuma next February, went down to eventual champion Bang Soo-hyun of South Korea in the semifinals. The 26-year-old Indonesian shuttler had to settle for the bronze after winning the play-off.

Indonesia also took the women's singles silver through Mia Audina. A shaky-turned-solid partnership of Rexy Mainaky and Ricky Subagja lifted Indonesia to its lone gold medal when they won the men's doubles final. Another bronze for Indonesia came from the men's doubles team, Antonius Irianto and Danny Kantono.

Flop

The collection of a gold, a silver and two bronzes was considered a flop as Indonesia bid to repeat its feat in the 1992 Olympics by winning two golds.

But Susi was all smiles when she spoke about Indonesia's badminton future. "I hope to see Mia mature soon and more players fill in my shoes," Susi was quoted by Antara as saying.

Mia, with her thoughts thousands miles away back home with her ailing mother, gave an early scare to All-England champion Bang before losing in straight sets.

Still, 16-year-old Mia, a surprising finalist in her Olympic debut, said she was the person responsible for Indonesia's failure to retain the women's singles crown.

"I failed this time although I have battled it out. I promise to improve myself as hard as I can," Mia said.

World men's singles champion Hariyanto Arbi, who lost to Malaysian Rashid Sidek in the play-off, also shared the blame. But Soerjadi prevented the gloomy celebration from going on too long when he shook everybody's hand and started joking.

Ricky and Rexy received the rice cone from Soerjadi to mark the celebration.

Soerjadi strongly defended his players' performances during the competition. "They have done their best. Their medal collection is worth praising," he said.

"I'm very proud of you all because of the efforts you have made, although there are some people feeling unhappy," Soerjadi consoled the players. "Don't spend too much time on regret but let's make this failure a lesson," he said.

Soerjadi added that the performance of the Indonesian badminton team will be reviewed once they arrive home.

Indonesia brought 20 shuttlers to Atlanta, the second largest badminton team after China, which earned the same medal collection as Indonesia.

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