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resident Susilo Bambang Yudho-yono on Friday awarded badminton maestro Retno Kustiyah and pencak silat legend Eddie Mardjoeki Nalapraya for their never-ending dedication to the development of the two sports in the country.

Retno, the 68-year-old badminton coach and daily caretaker of the prominent badminton club Jaya Raya, was awarded the Bintang Jasa Utama for her achievement in grooming the legendary badminton talents Susy Susanti, Mia Audina and Chandra Wijaya, among others.

“Badminton is the air that I breathe,” Retno told The Jakarta Post on Friday, prior to attending the award ceremony at the Presidential Palace.

Throughout her time as a coach, Retno helped her prodigies win three gold medals, a silver and a bronze at four Olympic Games. The gold medalists were Susy Susanti at Barcelona, men’s doubles champions Chandra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan in Sydney and the men’s duo Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan in Beijing.

In Atlanta in 1996, Mia Audina snatched silver, while Susy won bronze.

“To watch my students reach the top is my greatest joy that drives me to continue developing young talent until today,” said Retno, who started playing in international tournaments 40 years ago.

Retno, whose specialty was in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles, won the prestigious All England Championship in 1968 as well as two Asian Games gold medals in 1962 and 1966 with partner Minarni Sudaryanto. She also won the 1971 Asian Championship with her mixed doubles partner Christian Hadinata, now the head coach at the country’s national badminton training center.

Meanwhile, 79-year-old Eddie received the Bintang Mahaputra Pratama award for his lifetime efforts to preserve pencak silat, a traditional martial art with Melayu cultural roots.

Although not an athlete himself, Eddie founded PERSILAT (the International Pencak Silat Federation) in 1981. It now has 40 countries as members. Through the federation, Eddie popularized pencak silat at the international level by sending Indonesian pencak silat coaches to teach in countries such as Iran, Yemen, Turkey and Russia.

Since the inception of the federation, the World Pencak Silat Championships has been held every two years. Pencak silat continues to go global and has been featured annually since 2003 at the World Martial Arts Festivals in Paris, France.

“It was a delightful surprise for me to be able to receive this prestigious award, which is given only during Independence Day celebrations,” said Eddie, who also had a stint as former deputy governor of Jakarta in the 1980s.

Although pencak silat is beginning to gain global fame, Eddie acknowledged that its develop-ment in the country still needed improvement.

“I hope pencak silat can be introduced at a younger age to students in elementary school, so that we can do better at international competitions,” Eddie said, adding that he regretted that Indonesia now only ranked fourth in the sport in Southeast Asia.

Retno and Eddie were among 32 people awarded for their dedication in various fields, including sports, environment, politics and culture, as part of the 65th Independence Day celebrations, which falls on Aug. 17.