Jakarta: The 1992 Barcelona Olympic women’s singles gold medalist Susi Susanti who was also the team manager of the Indonesian badminton team for the 2017 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, told reporters that her players are ready to take on the challenges in Kuala Lumpur next month.
Susanti said the Indonesian team aims to win at least 3 golds in the biennial tournament through men’s team, men’s doubles, mixed doubles and possibly women’s doubles.
Defending champion and No. 1 seed – the Indonesian men’s team, has been drawn to play Cambodia in the quarterfinals, while No. 2 seed – the Malaysian team, was slated to meet Laos.
It’s highly possible that Indonesia would face Thailand in the semi-finals.
On the women’s team event, defending champion Thailand got a bye in the early rounds and advanced directly to the semifinals. The Indonesian women’s team would meet Laos in the quarter-finals, and could clash with Malaysian in the women’s team semi-finals.
“We need to play like a real winner and ready to fight any teams. Our team has the killer instinct to beat any opponents,” said Susi Susanti, the badminton legend from Indonesia.
“We got to keep working hard and we got to stay focused. We hope our men’s team can win a gold medal in Kuala Lumpur,” said Susanti.
Susanti has expected her women’s team to meet Malaysia in the semifinals and Thailand in the finals.
“Thailand’s women’s team is very strong, if we indeed meet them in the finals, it’s going to be 51% for Thailand and 49% for us, but we would not give up and would try to topple the defending champion.”
In the individual categories, Susanti said women’s pair of Greysia Polii and Apriani Rahayu, who just won the 2017 Thailand Grand Prix Gold has good chance of winning the women’s doubles gold.
“Greysia and Apriani got the boost they needed by outlasting several Thai pairs before winning the Thailand Grand Prix Gold, I really hope they can win in Kuala Lumpur,” added Susanti.
The 2017 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 29th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games and commonly known as Kuala Lumpur 2017 is a Southeast Asian multi-sport event that will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 19 to 30 August 2017.
