Jonathan Cristie jumped to release a smash towards Li Shi Feng's right. The Chinese player was able to reach the shuttle but failed to cross the net. Jojo, Jonatan Cristie's nickname, cheered. All supporters of the Indonesian badminton team shouted and approached Jojo on the field. Indonesia managed to bring home the Thomas Cup!

The tension on the field immediately faded after Jojo won the second men's singles match on Sunday (17/10/2021). Indonesia faced China, the world's badminton power that cannot be underestimated, and managed to win 3 points.

The previous round victory was presented by Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who managed to beat Lu Guangzu in the men's singles class. Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto won the Chinese pair in the men's doubles, He Jiting and Zhoi Haodong.

Indonesia's victory ended the fast for the Thomas Cup title 19 years ago. The last time Indonesia brought home the most prestigious trophy in the badminton world was in 2002 when legendary players like Taufik Hidayat were still playing.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Joko Widodo (@jokowi)

Indonesia became the first seed in the event, which took place in Aarhus, Denmark. China became the third seed and, on the way, beat Japan, who was more favoured to win the trophy.

Jojo, who was met after the decisive match, revealed that his achievements in Thomas far exceed what he got at the Asian Games. Jojo also thanked Ginting and the pair of Alfian and Ardianto, who managed to get points to make him play more relaxed.

"I saw Shifeng was a little nervous in the first game and I took the opportunity. The game was a rubber game for 3 sets, and I said to myself, come on, 100 more minutes," said Jojo.

Jojo played Danish men's singles Aanders Antonsen for 100 minutes in the previous match, the longest in the 2021 Thomas Cup. This made Jojo confident if he had to play longer in the Thomas Cup final.

Senior player Hendra Setiawan, who became the Thomas Cup team captain, said he was very proud of the achievements obtained. Indonesia went down with a similar composition of junior and senior players, making Indonesia's strength evenly distributed from the group stage to the final.

Indonesia's success paid for the complete defeat in 2010 final. At that time, Indonesia was defeated by China 3-0. The second chance to reach the final came in 2016, but Indonesia was beaten by Denmark with a score of 3-2.

Unfortunately, the achievements of the Thomas Indonesia team were not matched by the Uber team. The Indonesian women's badminton athletes had to be eliminated by the Thai team in the quarter-finals. Greysia Polii and friends lost 2-3 against Thailand. The Uber Cup itself was finally brought home by the Chinese team.

The last Uber Indonesia team took home the trophy in 1996. Indonesia itself has won Uber three times, namely in 1975, 1996 and 1996.

 

 

 

 

 

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No Flag

Unfortunately, the achievement of the Thomas Indonesia team in the final was slightly reduced without the presence of the Red and White national flag. This happened after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) imposed sanctions on Indonesia. This is the first time Indonesian history that the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) flag has flown on the world stage due to an administrative error.

This failure angered the Indonesian people. One of them is represented by badminton legend Taufik Hidayat. Hidayat questioned the performance of the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Indonesian Anti-Doping Agency (LADI).

The story begins on September 15, 2021, when WADA sent letters to eight organizations—six countries and two federations—that they had not met the requirements for doping tests on athletes in their respective institutions following The World Anti-Doping Code 2021, which WADA declared and updated every year.

Countries wrote to include Indonesia, Thailand, North Korea, Romania, the German Community of Belgium, Montenegro, the International Deaf Basketball Federation and the International Gira Sports Federation.

The notification letter was sent to LADI because Indonesia had not implemented an effective athlete doping testing program. WADA gave the eight organizations a deadline of 21 days. By the October 7 deadline, only three of the eight organizations clarified why their doping testing program was not compliant. Indonesia was one of those who failed and was sentenced to sanctions, not allowed to fly the flag of various sports activities. One of them is the Thomas Cup and future ones such as WSBK and MotoGP.

In addition to flags that are not allowed to be flown, Indonesia cannot apply to host regional and international sports tournaments. Indonesian citizens are also not allowed to serve on the management of regional and international sports organizations or committees.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Indonesian government, through the Ministry of Youth and Sports, has its own reasons. Apart from revealing that this is only a matter of managing documentation, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Indonesia has never held any sports competitions, so it cannot report the latest doping tests.

Minister of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Indonesia (Menpora RI) Zainudin Amali also revealed the reason why LADI's management was changing. This made the coordination with WADA late to respond. But no matter what you said, the Indonesian flag could not appear when the Indonesian athletes were proud of their achievements in the Thomas Cup.

Zainudin Amali apologized for the incident experienced by the Indonesian badminton squad when they won the Thomas Cup. "I apologize. Because because of this incident, it disrupted our euphoria of being able to bring home the Thomas Cup trophy," Amali said, Monday (10/18/2021).

Secretary of the Indonesian Anti-Doping Agency (LADI), Dessy Rosmelita, also specifically apologized to President Joko Widodo and the Indonesian people for making the Red and White flag unable to fly on the Thomas Cup podium. "We apologize to the President of Indonesia and the people of Indonesia for yesterday's unpleasant incident," said Rosmelita.

Menpora will create a special team to deal with problems with WADA. This team will be chaired directly by the Chairman of NOC Indonesia, Raja Sapta Oktohari.

"To solve this problem, we will seriously not be careless. I will form a team. In particular, the work of this team is twofold. First, the acceleration to get banned for LADI is ended and communication with WADA. Second, investigate what really happened. Because it is impossible for the end of the incident to have no cause," Amali said.