Indonesians win two golds in Sanyo Open
Indonesians win two golds in Sanyo Open
Imanuddin, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
Indonesia won two golds, as did China, in the Sanyo Indonesia
Open 2002 badminton championship, which concluded at the
Kertajaya Badminton Hall here on Sunday.
Star of the US$170,000 tournament was undoubtedly Indonesia's
men's singles player, seventh seed Taufik Hidayat, who crushed
Chinese rival in the men's final, unseeded Chen Hong, in straight
sets 15-12 15-12.
It took the flamboyant Indonesian player 53 minutes to defeat
Hong, who won the Singapore Open recently.
Although Hong was proven to be one class lower than Taufik,
the Chinese shuttler, who defeated fellow Chinese Bao Chunlai in
the semifinals on Saturday, fought Taufik relentlessly, chasing
the shuttlecock wherever it went.
The lead changed hands at least 10 times in the first set
before Taufik eventually finished Hong's struggle in 25 minutes,
excluding power blackouts that hit the badminton hall for some 10
minutes.
Buoyed up by the result of the first set, Taufik proved
unbeaten in the second, despite Hong's continuing fight. The lead
changed hands 13 times in the second set before the host favorite
ended it in 28 minutes.
The second gold contributor for the Indonesian team was the
country's senior mixed doubles pair of Bambang Suprianto and
Minarti Timur.
Experience and determination were obviously the key factor in
the easy victory of Bambang and Minarti over their juniors Nova
Widianto and Vita Marisa.
Unseeded Bambang and Minarti took only 19 minutes to defeat
sixth seeds Nova and Vita 11-7, 11-3.
Meanwhile, China took its first gold in the women's singles
match when unseeded Gong Ruina had an easy victory over her
senior, fourth seed Zhang Ning, in straight sets 11-6, 11-7.
However, Ruina dismissed speculation that the result of her
match had been pre-arranged within the Chinese team, saying, "It
was not an easy win for me as in China Zhang Ning and I have
equal rank and I used to play hard with her in every one of our
meetings."
China's second gold was contributed by its second seeds,
women's doubles players Gao Ling and Huang Sui, who outclassed an
unseeded Thai pair Sujitra Ekmongkolpaisarn and Saralee
Thungthongkam in straight sets 11-5, 11-4 in 35 minutes.
The fifth gold in the tournament went to South Korea men's
doubles pair, fourth seeds Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung, who
defeated unseeded Flandi Limpele and Eng Hian, Indonesians who
now play for England, in straight sets 15-10, 15-11.
Sunday's match also saw the farewell speech of Minarti Timur,
now 34 years old, who announced her resignation as an active
player in the national squad after being in it since 1986.