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.