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.