Wow..I am happy enough for Taufik Hidayat as he won the gold medal.I manage to catch Singapore channel 5 for the match between Kendrick and Taufik.Basically,Taufik rule the whole match but credit must also given to Kendrick fir beating two good players Sony and Boonsak.Btw,the commentator of channel 5 is really funny.I would love to see him commenting for badminton matches next time.
Our country has 230+ million people... we should be able to sweep almost all events in the Southeast Asian Games! Especially gold mines like athletics and swimming... [...yet ...it is not so... ]
Each country has their own clean sweep event such as Singapore with table tennis,Malaysia with diving and Thailand with boxing.Well,the athletics and swimming are the most competitive events and i am glad that there are many talent in this two event especially swimming.Hopefully South East Asia athlete can done well in the Olympic game.
Congratulations to Team INA for the wonderful end of the year present....a sweep of 7 Gold Medals in Badminton. Lius Pongoh and Christian Hadinata will be pleased!
Congratz to INA!!! They're in Bangkok now.. Their flight is at 2.30 am Thailand time.. Have a safe trip home everyone.. MAS is leaving Saturday (tomorrow) morning I think..
Indonesia Draws First Blood In Korat As expected, Indonesian men and ladies completed a gold medal whitewash as the badminton team event programme of the SEA Games came to a close in the Thai city of Korat on Monday evening. With a vastly superior lineup that included the world ranked Taufik Hidayat and Sony Dwi Kuncoro, the Indonesian men breezed past Singapore, winning both the singles and the first doubles to secure the gold-medal winning margins in the best of five matches. Taufik, who had suffered an unexpected loss to the Thai champion Ponsana in the semi-final a day earlier, was again not at his usual best. Playing the Singapore national champion, Kendrick, the Indonesian ace lost the opening game 12-21, survived the second by the narrowest of margins, 22-20 but was in his element in the third when he demolished the exhausted Singaporean 21-9. Sony was in a class of his own in his match against Chew Swee How. The winning score of 21-12, 21-7 was inspiring enough to set his doubles teammates Kido & Setiawan to seal the gold medal with a straight game win for an unassailable 3-0 margin. Earlier Singapore had shocked Malaysia out of the competition with 3-1 win. The Malaysians of course did not have the benefit of having their top singles and doubles players in this competition. In the other semi-final, Indonesia beat host, Thailand. In ladies competition, the Indonesian girls prevailed after a nervous start against Singapore. They lost the opening singles when Li Li and Xing Aiying scored surprise wins over Maria Yulianti and Adriyanti Fidasari. But Singaporean hopes were short-lived when Bernadet pulled one back for Indonesia against Fu Mingtian before a very powerful performance by the Indonesian pairs of Liliyana & Marissa and Poli & Novita sealed off a 3-2 victory in the best of five matches. In the semi-finals earlier, Singapore had beaten Malaysia 3-1 while Indonesian had seen off the Thai girls 3-0. Individual events in the SEA Games begin at the Badminton Gymnasium today.
SEA Games The gold medal at Korat must mean a lot to Taufik Hidayat. A loss at these games would've been embarrassing, to say the least. Imagine the winner at the Asian Games losing at the smaller South East Asian Games This should also enormously boost his spirit ahead of the Beijing Olympics. He's already won at the Olympic Games, the World Championships and the Asian Games. Come August 2008, he has but sporting history to look forward to
To be frank... ..and not to take anything away from the INA squad sweeping of all the medals, or lowering the standard of the SEA Games, i do agree with Taufik in that PBSI, or at least himself, should have sent the newer or younger players to compete. Or at least those who haven't won or tasted victory in SEA Games, as Taufik had won it before and the chance(s) for other players to compete and take the stage should be the priority.......But i understand, perhaps they (PBSI) want to display and showcase all of their talents to the fans awaiting for them in Korat.........let alone all the die-hard INA fans in BC... Btw, is it me, or does it seem Taufik tends to win those end of the year tourneys more so than during the yr??; at least the last couple of yrs?!...And yeah, concur earlier with alfa-2, that Taufik tends to play "serious" in tourneys labeled as "Games"(OG, AG, SEAG) more so than in "Opens"..
Finally, INA has made white wash in badminton SEAG! It's meaningful enough for INA badminton camp to taste past time glorious although can't say extraordinary achievement. Yeah, TH is so powerful and has very good record if he competes in multisport arena, from South East Asia region to Olympiad. Wanna see INA badminton isn't only the King of this SEAG but also reach big victory in Beijing Games which gold priority depends on XD,MD and MS. So far, INA's best record at OG is 2 badminton golds collection in Barcelona 1992 and the rest edition from Atlanta to Athens just won 1 gold. Will INA bring 3 bdm golds from Beijing? Let's see...
I am proud of INA Badminton team in SEAGAMES 2007. 7 gold medals, Wow!!!...too bad I did not watch the friday's final in Korat, at least I did it on Monday's teams final. Anyway, wish you all the best in next Olympic 2008. (^_^)v
Wow...7 gold medals for indo badminton?What happend to Thai,or Malay?DId they attain any gold medals?Apakah ini awal dari kebangkitan indonesia,setelah berapa tahun trakhir?We'll see their performance in the coming Olympic!!!Jia you indo!!
