Taufik soothes Indonesia's

Taufik soothes Indonesia's
woeful year in badminton

Eva C. Komandjaja
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Taufik Hidayat's rise to the Olympic championship not only
testified to his mettle as one of the world's best shuttlers but
also provided a bit of appeasement for the demanding Indonesian
badminton fraternity, after a pathetic run marked by the failure
in the Thomas Cup.

Playing on their own turf in May, Indonesia's men fell short
of retaining the Thomas Cup -- the world's most prestigious team
championship -- for what would have been the sixth consecutive
time. The team lost to Denmark 3-2 in the semifinals.

The Uber team also failed to revive the euphoria of Uber Cups
past, most notably their last victory in 1996, after going belly
up against South Korea 3-1 in the quarterfinals.

Fortunately, badminton, as expected, was still able to
maintain its medal streak at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens,
although the total collection continued to dwindle from two gold,
two silver and a bronze in Barcelona 1992; a gold, a silver and
two bronze in Atlanta 1996; a gold and a silver in Sydney 2000 to
a gold a two bronze in Athens 2004.

Sending a total of 14 shuttlers -- two entries in men's
singles, three sets of men's doubles, two teams of mixed doubles
and one team in the women's doubles -- to the Olympics, Indonesia
only managed to bring home medals from Asian champion Taufik
Hidayat (gold), Sony Dwi Kuncoro (bronze) and men's doubles pair
Flandy Limpele and Eng Hian (bronze).

Taufik won his gold medal after defeating South Korea's Shon
Seung-mo in the finals while Sony, Flandy and Eng Hian had to be
satisfied by collecting bronze medals.

Taufik's Olympic success may have come as a relief to the
nation's generally rueful Olympic campaign, but the only gold in
badminton testified once again to Indonesia's desperate struggle
to step out of China's shadow.

With his crowning moment in Athens, Taufik shut the skeptics
up, most of whom, over the last two years, had doubted him due to
his tantrums and volatile emotions. Those meltdowns also put him
at odds not only with the Badminton Association of Indonesia but
also with fans.

"Many people criticized me and wrote me off. I was fired up to
prove that I am still able to win," said Taufik upon his arrival
from Athens.

The Japan Open, the Indonesia Open and the Asian Championships
were the few tournaments, aside from the Olympics, where
Indonesian shuttlers were still able to shine.

Mixed doubles pair Nova Widhiyanto and Vita Marissa gave the
only title for Indonesia at the Japan Open, while Taufik and
men's doubles pair Sigit Budiarto and Tri Kusharjanto brought
home the Asian Champion titles.

At the season-closing Indonesia Open, the Chinese army of
shuttlers had representatives in the finals in all five events
and returned home with three titles, leaving the hosts content
with two, courtesy of Taufik in the men's singles and Alven
Yulianto/Luluk Hadiyanto in the men's doubles.

To add to Indonesia's badminton woes, none of the women's
shuttlers, either singles or doubles, managed to garner any
hardware, the best any of them could manage was the odd
quarterfinal run.

The performances were in stark contrast to China, most of
whose shuttlers enjoyed victories at every major tournament. Many
of them took to the courts as defending champions in European or
Asian tournaments and left home with the trophies still safely in
their hands.

World number one Lin Dan of China collected four men's titles
-- the German Open, the Denmark Open, the All England and the
Swiss Open and China's top women's shuttlers -- Gong Ruina, Zhang
Ning, Zhou Mi and Xie Xingfang -- were nothing short of
invincible.

The Thomas Cup debacle likely provoked the resignation of PBSI
chairman Chairul Tanjung, who had already been feeling the heat
on his chair in the wake of accusations of poor management.

An extraordinary meeting was held later and Jakarta Governor
Sutiyoso took over the reins without significant opposition.

He revamped the board with Icuk Sugiarto appointed as the
director of the National Training Center replacing Christian
Hadinata.

The former world champion tried to make changes at the Center
by recruiting an army of coaches in a bid to overhaul the
athletes' performance.

In his fledgling spell as the training director Icuk found
himself a target of critics, who accused him of favoritism in the
recruitment of players for national junior team for a world
championship in Canada in October.

The allegations, which Icuk denied, stemmed from the inclusion
of his son Tommy Sugiarto on the team.

The Canadian meeting witnessed another bout of Indonesia's
desperate effort to stem Chinese dominance. Tommy and his
teammates finished third behind China and South Korea in the team
event while in the individual category, Muhamad Rizal/Greysia
Polii's advance to the final in the mixed doubles was the best
run of the team. China brought home three of five titles, with
Malaysia and Korea grabbing one apiece.

The Canadian trip may have been an ominous warning bell of a
potentially rough future ahead for Indonesian Badminton.