Despite the results of one gold, silver and bronze medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, improvement is still needed especially in recruitment and training at the national badminton center.

The Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) chairman Sutiyoso said the body has targeted to keep the "gold medal tradition" at the quadrennial event.

"It's quite a burden. We relied (our medal hopes) on the men's and mixed doubles. Having two pairs as finalists was extraordinary," he said here Sunday.

Indonesia won a gold from the men's doubles duo Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan and a silver from the mixed doubles pair Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir.

Sutiyoso also praised Maria Kristin Yulianti's success in winning the bronze in the women's singles event. The 23-year-old is the third Indonesian women's singles player to win a medal in the event after Susy Susanti (gold in 1992 and bronze in 1996) and Mia Audina (silver in 1996).

"Her target was only the quarterfinals. But she progressed beyond that, much to our surprise. She deserves to be called a giant killer," he said.

Sutiyoso said the PBSI would improve its recruitment system especially by setting a minimum height for female players of 165 centimeters.

"One of the obstacles is that our female shuttlers are short, far shorter than the Chinese players, whose average height is over 170cms," he said.

"We have also changed from the old style of training at the badminton center, that women players should be coached by women coaches. We called in Hendrawan to coach them," said Sutiyoso. Hendrawan was the 2000 Olympics silver medalist and 2001 world champion.

Head coach Christian Hadinata said that the PBSI must now focus on preparing younger shuttlers to compete for the 2012 London Olympics.

"We know that our strength is in the mixed and men's doubles events. Therefore, we have to boost our young shuttlers performance in these events for 2012," he said.

Ahead of the 2012 Olympics, the young shuttlers will be given challenging opportunities at the 2009 and 2011 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games and 2010 Asian Games."

Christian mentioned Greysia Polii and M. Rijal as potential mixed doubles, as well as Rian Sukmawan and Yonathan and Joko Riyadi and Hendra AG in the men's doubles.

"They must be ready to replace their seniors, especially with Nova and Flandy having planned to retire in one or two years," he said.

Christian -- who has so far brought three men's doubles pairs to Olympics glory, including Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky in 1996 and Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan in 2000 -- said national shuttlers must be aware of their future rivals.

"Coaches must help prepare the shuttlers on how to face their future rivals, what kind of strategy to plan, etc.," he said.

While heaping praise on Maria, Christian rued Sony Dwi Kuncoro's dismal run in the men's singles event.

Sony, who had been expected to deliver a medal, fell to eventual silver medalist Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the quarterfinals.

"It was not easy to face Chong Wei. But Sony should have been better than he was, as they are at the same level," he said.

Sutiyoso, whose tenure runs to the end of this year, said his successor should be able to raise funds to finance the further development of badminton.

"In four years, we have spent Rp 50 billion (US$5.5 million) on financing -- among other things -- the shuttlers' competitions at international level," he said.

-- JP/Primastuti Handayani, from Beijing

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