I am happy that Zhang Ning claimed the Gold Medal (as I predicted)! She's a great champion and Maria simply lost to a better player yesterday period. I also read in Kompas that Lu Lan cried after she lost the match to Maria Kristin??? Anyway, Maria Kristin has really done INA proud by winning an unexpected Bronze Medal and even claiming a WR3 in the last match! I hope our MS can show some of her spirit
I saw the match ( rewind), Lu Lan was crying after losing the match... Bravo maria..........Lu Lan was really tired at the end...
The INA men's singles team had been complacent for some time because of taufik. now that he's no longer MS#1, hopefully SOny can set a better example for his juniors, and the INA squad can rebuild its team for Thomas Cup 2010. Truth is, it's all a cycle. I predict that China will become even less dominant in SS tournaments in the remainder of the year. (They seemed to have peaked last year.) most CHN players are exhausted - physically and mentally - by their BJ 2008 preparation...
Lu Lan is "cengeng" (fragile), she should've accepted her lost with ocean size of heart and good sportsmanship..I bet Maria wouldn't cried if she lost and failed to get her Bronze..Bravo Maria!
replay coverage I found the following tvants link to cctv coverage of the WS semifinals tvants://list.tvants.com/tvants/?k=c55b3e415e405b5d7a618369adcfb5a0 NB: this is playing at US-West Coast time [GMT -8]
Just 2 days ago I was talking to someone about this. Susy has a look in her eyes and an expression in her face that could be intimidating to her opponents. Sometimes if her opponents produced some good shot, she would do something with her lips that indicated that shot was nothing and she could do much better. I really miss that expression. I think Maria should learn that.
Maria snatches women's singles bronze Primastuti Handayani , The Jakarta Post , Beijing | Sat, 08/16/2008 2:40 PM | Sports Indonesian Maria Kristin Yulianti earned the bronze medal from women's singles badminton competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after defeating host shuttler Lu Lan 11-21, 21-13, 21-15 in 63 minutes. Maria seemed uncomfortable in the first game, making many unforced errors. But she fought back in the second game, leading 14-6, 18-8 and concluded the game 21-13 to force for a rubber game. In the decider, she comfortably led 18-8 before allowing the third seed Chinese to tail 20-15. But a long shot by Lu was out, giving the victory to the expression-less Indonesian. The 23-year-old walked slowly to coach Hendrawan and shook his hand to celebrate her win. “This victory is for Hendrawan. He was the one who brought me this far. I didn't expect this to happen. Hendrawan did not only teach me badminton, he also taught me how to deal with life,” said Maria, who is now coached by Hendrawan's former assistant Marlev Mainaky. Maria praised Hendrawan for his role in saving her from elimination from the Indonesian Badminton Center in 2005. “After the Uber Cup, the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) had planned to kick us out. That's when he was appointed as a coach and he told me to stick to badminton.” She acknowledged that she was nearly unable to endure the pain of her long-time knee injury. “It hurt during the match.” However, she said Lu looked very tired and played not her best form. “She made a lot of errors especially in the second and third games.” Lu acknowledged that there was something wrong with her strategy in the last two games. “It's a pity for me to lose but I've tried my best. She was slower to get going in the first game, but she played more steadily than me in the third game,” she said. “At the beginning of the third game, I had the advantage as I was ahead. But as the game progressed, my opponent caught up with me and I made more errors because my play was hurried and I became nervous.” Maria's bronze medal halted China's ambition for a medal clean sweep in women's singles. Defending champion Zhang Ning will challenge top seed Xie Xinfang for the gold medal later today. (***)
I guess if I am wrong about Hendrawan. Seems like Maria has a lot of respect for him. But I still stood by what I said about almost being kicked out. Glad that she proved them wrong. Congrats Maria once again on the bronze medal.
That's not classy man, you don't really know what she was thinking at that time, her personality, her ambition in her home olympic tournament, after all the hardship in training and the mountaineous expectation as WR3 to help China achieving a sweep in WS discipline. Just give her a break, it's not like she doesn't appreciate Maria win as a true beating, no need to kick someone while they're down.
I believe the timeframe was happening in PBSI elimination assessment sometime in 2005, after a bad performance in Uber Cup qualification stage in 2004, CMIIW.
That was way back in 2005. INA WS was in a lot of turmoil back then. By 2006, INA could not qualify to play in the Uber Cup final round.... And also, Maria didn't have anything good to show the management at that time.... No major victories etc....
Actually, it's happened after Februari 2006, when INA failed to qualify to Uber Cup Final, placing fourth on qualifying round in Jaipur, India. Like other BC member said before, after the ultimatum, Maria gave her best by winning Singapore and Surabaya Satellite on September, and had good result in the following month on European Tour (2nd in Luxemburg, 1/16 in Denmark, and QF in Dutch Open). She got back her seat in pelatnas after that.
yes, after UC elimination round She lost to Baharum Noorsyahliza of Malaysia (where is Baharum now ?) Then PBSI didn't send her in any big tournament, only 2 Satellite tournaments in Singapore & Surabaya. She answered it by won in both tournament, def. Julia Wong in Final. Surprisingly she had highest rank among INA WS in early 2007 and compete in 1st SS Tournament in Malaysia. Actually in 2005 she got the ultimatum too, and she played in local tournament Sinar Mutiara Tegal with Richasari (Kido's gf) & Siti Mahiroh. These 2 girls finally were kicked out from Pelatnas (at this time included Andre Kurniawan Tedjono & Taufik Akbar)
