Shuttlers win this but what about next?
Primastuti Handayani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
I personally thought Indonesia had begun to lose its grip on the badminton world after it only managed to win one of three finals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Apparently, this somewhat pessimistic view was not entirely well-founded.
This year, Indonesia improved its performance at the Sudirman Cup in Seville, Spain by reaching the final, where it bowed out to defending champion China. In the subsequent World Championships, men's singles player Hendrawan and the men's doubles pairing of Tony Gunawan and Halim Heryanto reigned supreme in their respective disciplines, with China sweeping the remaining three titles.
Tony and Halim arrived in the Spanish city as winners of the prestigious All England.
However, the World Championships success was not convincing enough for national shuttlers to face the challenge ahead.
Next year Indonesia will have to defend the Thomas Cup men's team championship. Another challenge will be to win as many gold medals as possible at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, hopefully better than in 1998 when Indonesia took the men's team and the men's doubles through Rexy Mainaky and Ricky Subagja.
In general, national shuttlers' performances throughout the year were not satisfying. Out of 80 titles at stake in 16 Grand Prix series tournaments, Indonesia only managed to bring home 19, or 23.75 percent. Eight of them were contributed by the country's mighty men's doubles team -- an improvement compared to last year's six. It also confirmed Indonesia's domination of men's doubles since taking the world champions title in 1995 and Olympic gold in 1996 and 2000.
Training director Christian Hadinata, himself a former doubles great, made a perfect decision by teaming up Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto (again) early this year. The pair took home the 1997 world champions title only to be split up after Sigit was found guilty of using the anabolic steroid nandrolone in 1998.
Only a few may have noticed that Indonesian mixed doubles players left their men's singles counterparts trailing in their wake in terms of the number of titles won, which stood at five against three this year.
Old hands Bambang Suprianto and Minarti Timur lived up to their status as masters in the mixed doubles but the emergence of Emma Ermawati -- now partnering Tri Kusherjanto, the 2000 Olympics finalist with Minarti -- is a good sign for next year. Emma managed to win three titles, two with Tri and one with Bambang, this year alone.
Hendrawan, meanwhile, put criticisms behind him by becoming Indonesia's fifth men's singles shuttler to be crowned world champion. Surprisingly he reached the heights when he was 29, a critical age in a sport that requires explosive body movements.
Fellow men's singles players Marlev Mainaky and Taufik Hidayat took a title each at the Indonesia Open and Singapore Open respectively.
Unfortunately that was the best they could do.
When it came to Grand Prix series, Malaysian men's singles players showed their domination with five titles, excluding the All England which went to Pulella Gopichand of India.
As usual, neither country managed to break down the "Chinese great wall" in the female ranks, with the People's Republic claiming nine and 10 titles in the singles and doubles respectively.
The Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) was given a blow when it failed to fulfill a target of five golds at the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in September by one medal short.
Host shuttlers managed to topple Indonesia's domination in the prestigious men's team event, which was Malaysia's first victory in 10 years, defying Indonesia success in Bangkok 1998 Asiad.
But it was also annoying that none of the golds came from singles players. In the absence of Taufik, the men's singles gold went to host Roslin Hashim while Sujitra Ekmongkolpaisarn of Thailand took the women's singles title.
Smarting from some less than satisfying achievements in 2001, PBSI officials, with banker Chairul Tanjung in the driver's seat, is racing against time to build a winning team for two major events next year: the Thomas/Uber Cups and Asian Games.
Chairul, who replaced Subagyo Hadisiswoyo, inherits a talent drain as many good players, including Tony and Taufik, decided to quit the national team at the end of Subagyo's term.
The main reason for the exodus was what they called unfair treatment from officials and coaches, particularly in regards to opportunities to compete overseas, as well as the sharing of sponsorship fees. Some players complained that they often received their payments late and that the money was not distributed based on category and ranking.
PBSI and players had reached an agreement that the money would be divided based on achievements in men's doubles and singles, mixed doubles and women's categories. But the ranking assessments were confusing as those who were at the bottom of the IBF list could receive quite substantial amounts of money.
Those problems are well-known but PBSI officials were apparently not sensitive enough to seek solutions.
Prior to the Thomas and Uber Cup finals in Guangzhou, China, in May, the national Uber Cup team must first pass a daunting test at the qualifying round in Melbourne, Australia in February. They will need only to reach the semifinals to qualify for the finals.
With less than five months of effective preparation, PBSI has been desperately recalling players who have left the training center.
But another headache awaits.
The International Badminton Federation (IBF) has been applying the new scoring system of best-of-five games in seven points since June.
It will be a great advantage for hosts China, whose players are accustomed to the aggressive speed and power play game. Moreover, China now has two juniors in Bao Chunlai and Lin Dan who have managed to appear in the Grand Prix series.
On the contrary, Indonesia -- going directly to the final four as the defending champion -- is still struggling to adapt to the new system. So far, only Marlev and Taufik have been able to win tournaments using the new scoring format while second stringer Rony Agustinus reached the final at the Malaysia Open.
Hendrawan is apparently not confident of being able to repeat the same level of success achieved under the old scoring regime.
"With the new scoring system, it will be very risky for PBSI to field me as the first singles player at the Thomas Cup. I think my juniors are well prepared for such major events. PBSI just needs to send them to more international tournaments," he said.
With or without the new scoring system, the PBSI will still use much the same team as in 2000 except for the absence of Rexy, Ricky, Antonius Budi Arianto and Hariyanto Arbi. The four quit the center due to their ages.
Hendrawan, Marlev, Taufik, Candra, Sigit and Tony will likely be playing alongside Halim, Nova Widhianto, Lulu Hadiyanto in the doubles and Rony, Sony Dwi Kuncoro or Ardiansyah in the singles.
With many big names in Chairul's office -- including lawyer Juan Felix Tampubolon, Indofood CEO Eva Rianti Hutapea and businessman Rahmat Gobel -- it is understandable that badminton lovers have high expectations.
The question is: can they fulfill the mission?