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span class="inline inline-left">All-Indonesian final: Indonesian shuttlers Mohammad Ahsan (right) and Bona Septano (second right) pose with compatriot Markis Kido (second left) and Hendra Setiawan after their finals match in the men’s doubles of the SEA Games in Jakarta on Nov. 19. Ahsan and Bona defeated Markis and Hendra to grab gold medals. JP/P.J. LeoAlthough lacking prestigious titles throughout the year and struck by a series of injury-related misfortunes, chances for Indonesian shuttlers to qualify for the London Olympics remain open, but only for those who are most determined.

“Our peak target is still the London Olympics. So, if we can win Olympic gold, all those failures in securing prestigious titles this year will be disregarded. I believe chances are still open for us,” Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI)’s national doubles head coach Christian Hadinata told The Jakarta Post last week.

“However, that depends mainly on each shuttler. How bad they want to play at the Olympics will determine their willingness to train harder and to be more disciplined and motivated,” said the former All England men’s doubles champion.

Indonesia hopes to qualify two pairs from each of the three doubles events: men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles while the clock is ticking faster toward the BWF ranking list May 3, 2012 deadline, which will be used to detemine the London qualification results. Only the world’s best eight pairs of each event will qualify for London.

“We are not in a safe place yet. Thus, in the remaining months our main target is to improve each player’s [world] rank,” said Christian.

At the recently concluded Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Superseries Finals in Liuzhou, China, where the host dominated four of the five events, no Indonesian advanced from the group qualifier stage.

Months earlier, Indonesia came home empty handed from the All England, while the best run at the BWF World Championship were semifinalists M. Ahsan/ Bona Septano in the men’s doubles and Tontowi Ahmad/ Liliyana Natsir in mixed doubles.

Despite collecting Grand Prix Gold titles from Malaysia, Taiwan, Samarinda and Macau, Indonesia won only two Superseries titles — the BWF’s highest level of competition — by Tontowi and Liliyana from India and Singapore. Afterwards, the duet struggled through months of fruitless effort before finally rising as gold medalists at the 26th SEA Games, in which the host snatched five of the seven gold competed among the Southeast Asian shuttlers and won a Grand Prix Gold level tournament in Macau a week later.

Undeniably, Towi and Lili are seen as Indonesia’s most promising duo to qualify for London. They are currently world No. 4, two levels below their brief rocketing stint to world No. 2 rank at the start of 2011. The men’s doubles Bona and Ahsan are also presently in their best form so far at world No. 6, two levels up from the No. 8 position earlier this year.

“But they still need to work on the way they face critical points in tough matches. It is no longer about technical skills, but more about the issue of concentration, courage and the ability to learn from their experience,” said Christian, who from 1972 to 1986 reinforced Indonesian Thomas Cup Teams over six campaigns with different men’s doubles partners.

During the second half of 2011, pair separation and a series of injuries also clouded the national badminton training camp in Cipayung.

In November, mixed doubles shuttler Pia Zebadiah Bernadet moved out of Cipayung after she was separated from partner Fran Kurniawan Teng, both of whom were once ranked world No. 8. Their separation means Fran, with his new pair Shendy Puspa Irawati, must make a nearly impossible climb to the top eight from present the 163 spot within six months. The country’s third pair, Debby Susanto and M. Rijal, must boost themselves from their rank of 21st.

During the same month, women’s doubles ace Greysia Polii had to withdraw from the SEA Games squad due to injury. Previously reaching the rank of world no. 5, Greysia and partner Meiliana Jauhari now cling at No. 8. Women’s singles Adriyanti Firdasari and Lindaweni Fanetri were also injured during their SEA Games appearances. The injuries forced them to stay at home for recovery despite the urgency for competing at the Superseries and Grand Prix Gold tournaments abroad for London qualification points. Linda, now ranked No. 39, is followed by Firda in 40th.

“We are still bringing them to recovery and hopefully by the start of the year they will be able to compete again in Korea and Malaysia,” said PBSI head of athlete development Hadi Nazri.

“Our previous target was to reach the world top four [in singles], but the women continue to drift afar from the top 10, while the men are stagnant,” Hadi said.

Only countries reaching the BWF top-four rank in singles may send a maximum of three singles from each of the men’s and women’s events.

Simon Santoso, who once stood in the world’s top three, is now the country’s only singles shuttler to be at No. 8, which is already a recovery after a slump to the 19th position in August due to a difficult adjustment with the training program brought about by singles head coach Li Mao of China. Indonesia’s other men’s singles hopefuls are world No. 18 Tommy Sugiarto and Hayom Dionysius Rumbaka (23).

The senior men’s doubles, including pair Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Hendra Aprida Gunawan and their Beijing Olympics champion fellows Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan have to deal with declining stamina. Kido and Hendra now cling at No. 10, while Alvent and Hendra are at No. 9. Singles veteran Taufik Hidayat, hoping for a last chance to emulate his 2004 Athens Olympics golden glory, had heavyweight lifting to do after being toppled to No. 11 from world No. 2 at the start of the year.

“There’s so much pressure at the Olympics, especially for the top seeds. Things can happen beyond prediction. But still our players can’t help but hope for luck falling from the sky, and they have to train harder,” Christian recalled top seeded mixed doubles Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyu-min of South Korea, who lost at the quarterfinals of the 2004 Athens Olympics despite two promising years of nonstop triumphs in the world badminton arena.

Since badminton first appeared at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Indonesia has won six gold medals, with the first two from badminton couple Susy Susanti and Alan Budikusuma.

Men’s doubles Rexy Mainaky and Ricky Subagja maintained golden glory in 1996 in Atlanta and were followed by men’s doubles Tony Gunawan and Candra Wijaya in Sydney in 2000.

Singles Taufik Hidayat won the gold in 2004 in Athens, while men’s doubles Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan continued the tradition four years ago in Beijing. We will see if any of our shuttlers keep the golden tradition, but first they have to qualify for London.