THE INDONESIAN Olympic squad which boasted Bathurst’s Stephen Bird as their strength and conditioning co-ordinator has completed one of their most successful campaigns yet.
Australia’s near northern neighbours finished a respectable 42nd on the overall medal tally, thanks to a single gold medal, a silver medal and a trio of bronzed efforts across two sports.
As expected badminton provided the majority of the Indonesian haul, while weightlifting also produced a pair of medals.
The men’s doubles pairing of Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan took out the cherished top prize in their competition, defeating a Chinese combination in the deciding match two games to one.
The pair only lost two games throughout the tournament.
The mixed doubles pairing of Lilyana and Nova Widianto made it all the way to the deciding rubber against the highly-fancied Korean team and it proved a bridge too far as they went down two games to love – but coming away with a silver medal was still a good reward for a strong tournament.
The third and final badminton medal came courtesy of Maria Yulianti who recovered from a semi-final loss to China’s Ning Zhang to defeat another Chinese player Lu Lan in the bronze medal play-off.
According to Bird in a preview of the team’s performance in Beijing, weightlifting was to be the other main area in which his athletes would prosper, and so it proved as they collected a pair of bronze medals.
Eko Irawan took third spot in the men’s 56kg division, with a combined snatch/clean-and-jerk total of 288kg.
He went into the clean-and-jerk just two kg behind eventual winner, Chinese lifter Quingguan Long and stayed within four kg of the winner through the final part of the overall competition.
Triyatno replicated his teammate’s efforts in the 62kg class, but did not come within shouting distance of another Chinese lifter in Xiangxiang Zhang who lifted an amazing 319kg to Triyatno’s 298kg across the two disciplines.
Athens medallist Lisa Rumbewas came up just short in the women’s 53kg division, finishing fourth.
“The gold medal badminton game was just amazing,” Bird said after arriving back in the country.
“There were 14,990 Chinese fans screaming for their team and 10 little yobbos in our corner supporting the Indonesians.
“Maria was another highlight as she knocked off two top-10 players in the preliminary rounds of the women’s singles.”
Bird said that hurdler Dedeh Erawati achieved her goal of a national record in the women’s 100m hurdles, though fellow sprinter Suryo Agung Wibowo was disappointed not to progress past the first round of the men’s 100m sprint despite several runners getting through with an identical time to his 10.49s.
As well as the impressive performances from his own team, Bird can take plenty more memories from the unique experience that only an Olympic Games can offer.