Indonesian golden heroes welcomed home
20/8/2008 17:55
Indonesia's Olympic gold medalists Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan
received heroes' welcome at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta
yesterday after returning from Beijing, capital of China.
The men's badminton
doubles pair, who won Indonesia's sole gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympics,
were part of a group of 12 returning Indonesian athletes, including 11 shuttlers
and a runner.
They were welcomed home amid signs and banners by some 30
people, including their families, relatives and officials of the Indonesian
Sports Council, the State Ministry for Sport and Youth Affairs and the
Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI), the Jakarta Post daily reported
today..
With their gold medal victory, they kept alive Indonesia's run of
winning at least one gold at every games since badminton was first featured at
Barcelona 1992.
"I'm very grateful," Kido said. "This victory is for
Indonesia... it is my birthday present and it is for my late father."
Hendra
said they had prepared hard ahead of the Olympics.
"We were longing for
this... but we still had to work hard in the preceding All England and Asian
Games," he said.
Kido and Hendra, world championship winners in 2007, failed
this year to win the All England and Asian Games for their first time.
Kido's
sister Pia Zebadia Bernadet, also a national shuttler, said all of her family
members had enthusiastically received the Olympic champions.
Indonesia, with
24 athletes competing in seven sports, brought home a single gold, a silver and
three bronze medals from Beijing; one bronze better than in Athens
2004.
Badminton also contributed a silver medal through mixed doubles pair
Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir and a bronze through surprise package Maria
Kristin Yulianti in the women's singles.
Indonesia won two bronze medals in
weightlifting, with Eko Yuli Irawan finishing third in the men's under 57
kilograms event, and Triyatno in the men's under 62 kg. The team of five lifters
returned home on Aug. 15. Badminton coach Sigit Pamungkas said, "I'm very
satisfied with Markis and Hendra. With this victory, they have proved their
maturity by surviving the pressure. Especially Markis, he showed his
best."
Nova and Lilyana might rue their missed chance for gold after being
beaten in the final, but Lilyana said she would put the disappointment behind
her and look ahead.
"Nova and I will still be pairing in the next two years.
So, we have to ready ourselves for the next Super Series," Lilyana
said.
Xinhua
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