Ricky and Rexy reach final to restore Indonesia's pride
Ricky and Rexy reach final to restore Indonesia's pride
ATLANTA, Georgia (Agencies): Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky
partly restored Indonesia's pride in the Olympic badminton
tournament on Monday when they reached the men's doubles final.
It took the top seeds half an hour to sweep aside the
Malaysians Soo Beng Kiang and Tan Kim 15-3, 15-5, and move a step
closer to their first Olympic gold medal.
The Indonesians will meet their old Malaysian rivals, Cheah
Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock, in Wednesday's final.
On Monday the Malaysian world number two pair foiled an all-
Indonesia final with an equally formidable win over third seeds
Danny Kantono and Antonius Irianto who fell 10-15, 4-15.
The success of Ricky and Rexy relieved Indonesia's grief after
Sunday's matches which eliminated men's singles aces Joko
Suprianto and Alan Budikusuma.
The last time Ricky and Rexy beat the Malaysian world number
two pair was in the All-England final last March. The world's two
best doubles teams did not meet each other in the Thomas Cup in
May because Malaysia failed to reach the semifinals.
But head-to-head records don't seem to matter in the Olympics.
The in-form Cheah and Yap displayed their devastating fire power
when they came back from a 4-8 first-set deficit to outwit their
Indonesian opponents on Monday.
"Whoever we meet, we are ready for the final. It doesn't make
any difference. The important thing is to concentrate fully from
the start," Ricky said on the final.
In the women's doubles, South Korea and China will battle for
gold on Wednesday. China's world champions Gu Jun and Ge Fei put
out Rikke Olsen and Helene Kirkegaard of Denmark 15-8, 15-2. And
in a tense thriller, South Korea's world number two tandem, Jang
Hye-ock and Gil Young-ah, overcame the Chinese duo Tang Yongshu
and Qin Yiyuan 15-12, 10-15, 18-16.
Golden dream
Meanwhile South Korea's 1992 Olympic champion Park Joo-bong
moved a stage closer to his dream of a gold medal in badminton's
mixed doubles after he and partner Ra Kyung-min moved into the
semifinal.
The semifinals to be played on Tuesday (on Wednesday, Western
Indonesian Time), will both be between South Korea and China. Top
seeds Park and Ra are up against China's Liu Jianjun and Sun Man,
while Korea's Kim Dong-moon and Gil Young-ah meet the Chinese duo
Chen Xingdong and Peng Xingyong.
Park, who won the men's doubles gold medal four years ago and
has come out of retirement for the Atlanta mixed doubles, said he
had grown in confidence because he had become more accustomed to
the Chinese teams.
"Now we have played the Chinese we are used to their technique
and style, so if we meet any more Chinese I am confident," he
said after he and Ra defeated China's Wang Xiaoyuan and Tao
Xiaoqiang 15-7, 15-9.
Liu and Sun, meanwhile, edged out Indonesia's Flandy Limpele
and Riseu Rosalina 15-2, 5-15, 15-7. Chen/Peng beat Michael
Sogaard and Rikke Olsen of Denmark 15-10, 6-15, 18-15. And
Kim/Gil defeated Indonesia's number two seeds Trikus Herianto and
Minarti Timur 15-4, 15-13.
When asked about the two failures in the mixed doubles, a
disappointed Indonesian team manager, Lutfi Hamid, refused to
make any comment. He just shrugged his shoulders and gave two
thumbs down.