Indonesian shuttlers share guilt over failures

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.

Editorial -- Page 4