Smiling Joko ready to fool his detractors
Smiling Joko ready to fool his detractors
ATLANTA, Georgia (Agencies): Joko Suprianto, the smiling Indonesian who has been written off more times than he cares to remember, will be one of the most surprising favorites at the Centennial Olympics when badminton begins yesterday.
It was the most painful disappointment of Joko's career when he was excluded from his country's squad when badminton made its Olympic debut in Barcelona four years ago. Few believed he would be in Atlanta seeded to win gold.
Even when the 29-year-old lost his world title in Lausanne, Switzerland, last year detractors were writing him off as past his best. But Joko made them look foolish with superb performances which have earned him titles at the World Cup and World Grand Prix finals.
This helped him regain his confidence and earned him a valuable place at the head of the draw which has kept him away from the half containing his compatriot rivals, world champion Haryanto Arbi and defending Olympic champion Alan Budikusuma.
However, Joko may have to cope with a semifinal against the most dangerous riser on the circuit, China's Dong Jiong, who hit the top spot on the world rankings one month after the Olympic qualifying cutoff date in April.
Faster
Dong probably moves faster than any player in the competition and will be one of the biggest threats to the Indonesians' ambitions to win both Olympic singles titles for the second successive time.
Another is the world champion from China Ye Zhaoying, who is the top seed in the women's singles. However Ye was beaten in the Uber Cup world team finals in Hong Kong in May by Susi Susanti, the defending Olympic champion who wants to win gold again before winding down her uniquely successful career and marrying Alan.
Susi completed the Uber Cup unbeaten, and appears to have regained enough of her balletic grace and metronomic consistency to be the unofficial favorite. However she has a harder draw than Ye Zhaoying.
That is because she has in her half the gifted Korean Bang Soo-hyun, who beat her en route to winning the All-England title in Birmingham in March and briefly became the world's top-ranked player.
Four titles
The Indonesians could conceivably capture four titles, for Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky in the men's doubles are the strongest of all the top seeds, and Trikus Herianto and Minarti Timur are seeded second in the mixed doubles.
However, the most likely winner of the mixed is the returning star, Park Joo-bong, widely regarded as the greatest all-round doubles player of all time.
The 31-year-old Korean has made a comeback in partnership with Ra Kyung-min specially to try to win an event which has been accepted into the Olympic schedule for the first time. Afterwards he plans to retire for the third and last time.
Elsewhere in the boxing ring, light middleweight Hendrik Simangunsong completed a winning Indonesian double with a 12-1 points victory over Zimbabwe's Alexander Kwangwald just two fights after teammate flyweight Hermansen Ballo beat Guy Boulingui of Gabon 6-2.
Meanwhile in windsurfing, the Indonesian Windsurfing Association will not set any medal targets for the country's sole surfer, Oka Sulaksana, an official said in Jakarta yesterday.
Iskandar, the association's official, said that 26-year-old Oka is only expected to get into the big 10 position at the competition, which will be staged at Savannah Beach, about 430km southeast of Atlanta.
Iskandar said that he is optimistic that Oka will be able to reach the targeted position, due to his Olympic qualifying results in the Netherlands two months ago. Oka finished in second position at the competition.
"He met his toughest rivals at the qualification, so there will be no problem," he said.
Antara reported strong winds at Savannah beach, reaching 17 knots.
Oka, who will compete in the mistral class, will take advantage of the windy conditions, Iskandar said.
"Oka really loves strong wind. If the wind is too weak, he'll have problems," he said.
Oka, a gold medalist at the Southeast Asian Games in Chiang Mai last year, competed on Monday. The results, however, will be announced in one week. He is accompanied by coach Roby Rumeper.