http://olahraga.kompas.com/read/201...iawan.ingin.tebus.kekecewaan.empat.tahun.lalu Setiawan : "I want to redeem my disappointment in 2012 by winning gold in Rio"
and it looks like Setiawan wont retire even after olympic.. i predict there will be a few new pair after olympic.. maybe ahsan/setiawan wii be mixed with pratama/suwardi
Yeah I've read it somewhere that he still wants to play while he still can. So he never hinted retirement after Olympics. There are some promising successor like Kevin and maybe if they want to pull Jordan to double duty in MD (just like most Korean and Chinese elite players), MD sector's future is still bright IMO. Not to mention some other older players will retire and there will be shuffling in the ranking. Butet herself now doing many businesses not in badminton so we don't know if she wants to contribute in coaching post retirement. She's successful in property business (sold out her housing unit in Bekasi) and owning several therapy massage and reflexology spa in Tangerang.
INA PBSI's 3 target at Rio : 1) First back to back gold in MD through Setiawan 2) First medal ever for WD (according to Eng Hian, grab a medal first but let's not talk about the color of the medal it will put to much pressure on our pair if we always stress on gold) 3) First gold for XD
PBSI will top the bonus from Ministry of Sports (USD 500,000) with USD 100,000 for each athlete and coach for every gold. http://www.badmintonindonesia.org/app/information/newsDetail.aspx?/5234
Too bad Ahsan/Hendra is now out of the Olympic early. This is even worst than not having to compete at all in 2012. Praveen/Debby also lost to ZN/ZYL today. They will be the runner up on the group A. As expected, Lindaweni Fanetri can't do much. She already lost her first match vs. Vietnam. She can't contend with anybody in South East Asia except maybe Singapore now including Vietnam. This is so sad.
Tommy's road to to glory are going to be tough by going through Sho Sasaki, Victor Axelsen, Chen Long/SWH, then LCW/LD.
I can't believe Setiawan/Ashan are out... Such a disappointment, I was counting on them for a great competition and now we are left with very few interesting pairs to watch. I hope they won't take it too hard!
I think this Olympic will be similar with London Olympic when Owi/Butet will be our last and only hope in semi final. However, they will face a tougher opponent this time. They will face Zhang/Zhao not Xu/Ma. Greys/Nitya are unlucky to get Tang/Yu in QF as their opponent, other pairs would be better for them. I never expect Tommy to get medal. MS is too dominated by LCW, LD, and CL. I hope my prediction will be proven wrong as my prediction about Ahsan/Hendra to get Gold Medal.
If they can pass ZN/ZYL later on today, Towi/Natsir should be pumped up and ready to meet Xu/Ma or GYL/CPS again. Towi/Natsir can handle both pairs just fine.
It is a disappointment all-around. Polli/Maheswari was not up to their potential today. They should have made life difficult for YY more.
I am very happy that Owi/Butet can reach final. They have a very positive H2H against CPS/GLY but in this Olympics H2H is quite useless as an indicator. Endo/Hayakawa never win against Ahhend but they beat Ahhend convincingly in this Olympics. Ouseph defeated Tommy which has never happened before, Then, there are FHF/ZN vs Kims and GVS/TWK vs LYD/YYS which the result are quite the opposite of their H2H record. I hope CPS's serve still like in Malaysia Open and Butet at last can end her carrier with an Olympics Gold.
