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All England World Champions Ahsan/Hendra aim for ticket to Olympiad
Written by Ani Hasanah
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Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan pose for group photo with their families at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport upon arrival from Basel, Switzerland, on Tuesday
ANTARA
Indonesia's men's doubles pair Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan are leaving no stone unturned for qualifying for the 2020 Olympiad in Tokyo after bagging the World Championships title in Switzerland on Sunday.
Ahsan and Hendra, ranked fourth in the men's doubles, defeated the 12th-seeded Japanese pair Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi 25-23, 9-21, 21-15.
With this victory, Ahsan/Hendra, the pair crowned the All England champion in 2019, has increasingly stepped up its ranking as the world's second-seeded men's doubles players.
Taking into account their bright performance this year, Hendra is optimistic of fighting it out along with Ahsan to qualify for the Olympiad 2020.
They decided to separate after their sagging results in the Olympiad 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
"I want to remain with him. We have not made preparations yet since it is still long. We want to qualify for it first," he stated at a press conference at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Cengkareng, West of Jakarta, on Tuesday night.
With the world championships title, Hendra equalizes the record of four-time gold medalists Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng of China who earned the maximum world championships titles in the men's doubles.
Hendra bagged one of his gold medals when he teamed up with Markis Kido in 2007.
The title is Ahsan's third. He won all the titles along with Hendra respectively in 2013, 2015, and 2019.
Ahsan and Hendra are also the first men's doubles players to win the All England and World Championships in the same year in the last decade since the Cai and Fu pair bagged the two titles in 2009.
Manager of the Indonesian badminton team Susy Susanti stated that the men's doubles currently serves as the Indonesian team's superiority.
The Indonesian pair Kevin Sanjaya Sukamulya/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon is currently ranked first in the world's men's doubles, while the Hendra/Ahsan pair and Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto pair are respectively ranked second and sixth.
"We hope they would remain in the top eight until the deadline for the registration of Olympiad participation, so the Indonesian team will find it easy to not only qualify for the Olympiad but also groom its top-seeded players," she added. (ANTARA)
