Indonesia Looks to Win 4 Golds From Badminton at 24th SEA Games

The badminton competition at the Southeast Asian Games kicked off yesterday, with Indonesia hoping to win four gold medals in the event to add to its bag.

Indonesian men's and women's teams will play today, facing the winners from the qualification round, the Jakarta Post daily reported yesterday.

With the absence of world No. 2 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia -- runner-up in the Super Series at the Hong Kong Open two weeks ago -- Taufik Hidayat and Sony Dwi Kuncoro are expected to smooth the victory path for Indonesia. They are also tipped to set up an all-Indonesian final in the men's singles.

Their possible stumbling blocks will be host shuttler Ponsana Boonsak and Ronald Susilo of Singapore, said the report.
Indonesian women's singles -- Adriyanti Firdasari, Maria Kristin Yulianti and Pia Zebadiah Bernadet -- will take advantage of the absence of Malaysia's sweetheart Wong Mew Choo due to injury. Their toughest rivals will be Singaporeans Li Li and Julia Wong.

At the 2005 Games in the Philippines, Malaysia took the gold medal in the men's team and women's doubles. Indonesia had almost made a clean sweep by taking four gold medals -- in the men's singles and doubles, women's singles and the mixed doubles - from seven gold medals at stake. The other gold in the women's event was won by Thailand.