World in Sport

Flandy, Vita lose semifinal match, eying for a bronze
Indonesian third seeds Flandy Limpele and Vita Marissa let the chance to set up an all-Indonesian final mixed doubles event slip from their

hands after bowing out to unseededs Lee Hyojing and Lee Yongdae of South Korea 9-21, 21-12, 17-21 in 52 minutes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Started shakingly in the first game, the Indonesian pair tied 1-1 to force for a rubber game. They comfortably led 17-14 but started to make unforced errors that finally gave the victory to the Koreans.

“In the first game, the Koreans dictated us to play fast. They were good and strong. Lee Hyojung was very good with her nettings and she’s fast,” Vita said.

“We tried our best. This is the best we could do,” said Flandy, who competed for his fourth Olympics. “We should have slowed down our pace in the decider as we always lost during fast rallies.”

Flandy, the 2004 Athens Olympics bronze medalist in men’s doubles with Eng Hian, has planned for a retirement after the Beijing Games.

“We will fight hard to win the bronze medal,” both Vita and Flandy said.

The Koreans will challenge Indonesia’s top seeds Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir on Sunday’s final.

So far, Indonesia has won three bronze medals in Beijing – two from weightlifters Eko Yuli Irawan and Triyatno and one from women’s singles shuttler Maria Kristin Yulianti. Indonesia has always won gold medals since badminton was first featured at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.