OLYMPICS / Barcelona 1992 - Round-Up: Badminton: Indonesia off the mark

Tuesday 04 August 1992 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

INDONESIA had to wait for 40 years for its first Olympic title - Susi Susanti's gold in the women's singles in badminton. The wait for title No 2 lasted just two hours.

And a romantic tale it is too, as the men's singles winner was Susanti's boyfriend, Allan Budi Kusuma, who caused an upset by beating last year's All-England champion, Ardy Wiranata, 15-12, 18-13 in a match lasting an hour and 13 minutes that was full of patient rallies.

'It didn't affect me in any way that Susi had already won a gold,' Kusuma said rather ungallantly. 'I just set out to fight hard and not give anything away.'

Susanti won 5-11, 11-5, 11-3 against Bang Soo-Hyun, the 19- year-old South Korean who also lost in the All-England final to China's world champion, Tang Jiuhong. Susanti did watch Kusuma this time, unlike in the semi-final when her nerves got the better of her.

The first Olympic badminton tournament was not good for the Chinese, so impressive in other sports. All their top men, including the world champion, Zhao Jinhua, failed. In the women's singles there were only bronzes for Tang and Huang Hua.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in