Indonesia became only the second country in badminton’s history to ever have four of their mixed-doubles shuttlers occupying the world’s top 15, with China the other country to achieve this milestone.
Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir have tasted success in their partnership and are currently world number 2, the best for Indonesia in the category.
Other Indonesians pairs include Praveen Jordab-Debby Susanto (9th), Ricky Widianto-Richi Puspita Dili (11th) and Edi Subaktiar-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja (12th).
The supremacy is said to be a result of Richard Mainaky’s actions, as the national head coach. Richard, however, humbly refused to take all the praise, instead gave credit to the team and officials at the Indonesian Badminton Federation (PBSI).
“PBSI have been a great support and a crucial factor for this success,” he told Tempo Indonesia.
“With the current management, we have succeeded in putting four pairs in the world’s top 15.”
“This is a sign of a good change in the team. Regeneration is working well.”
Despite that, Richard still wants to keep on going, as his mission is to make five pairs of Indonesian shuttlers to sit in the world’s top 20.
WHAT DO WE THINK?
In a sport where its mostly dominated by China based players, it’s nice to see the rise of Indonesians. Compared to the singles category, Indonesia has always flourished in the doubles event, especially mixed doubles, as proven above. But even in the men doubles, Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan are not doing bad themselves, ranked 2nd in the world rankings. It just shows if the management, coaches and players work together, these kind of success will not be impossible to achieve.
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