PARIS: Indonesian shuttler Gregoria Mariska Tunjung was awarded a bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics women’s singles badminton event, following the withdrawal of Carolina Marin of Spain as a result of an injury in the semifinals.
The bronze was Indonesia’s first medal at this year’s Olympics. It was also the country’s first in women’s singles badminton since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where Maria Kristin Yulianti took the bronze.
On Sunday (Aug 4), world number seven Gregoria lost 11-21, 21-13, 21-16 to world number one An Se-young of South Korea in the first semifinal match.
Gregoria was then set to play in a playoff match for bronze. But in the second semifinal match on Sunday, 2016 Olympic gold medalist Marin, who was playing against China’s He Bingjao, was forced to withdraw from the Paris Games after suffering a right knee injury.
With Marin’s withdrawal, He automatically earned a spot in the final match against An for the gold. Meanwhile, Gregoria, who had been scheduled to play the loser of the Marin-He match, was awarded the bronze.
“This is definitely not the way how I wanted to win a medal,” Gregoria said in a statement.
“I am grateful [that I have been awarded] with the medal, but I’m not happy [with how it was done],” she said, adding that her feelings were mixed, as she felt sorry about the incident that happened to Marin.
Marin was on track to reach the final but collapsed midway through the second game against He. Coaches and He rushed to her side as she lay on the ground for several minutes, clutching her leg.
She eventually got up and walked off the court before resuming play wearing a support. But she could barely move and lost the next two points before falling to the ground again and withdrawing.
Marin, the fourth seed in Paris, won the first game 21-14 and was leading 10-6 in the second before she left the court in tears and went for a medical examination.
The Spaniard was a favourite for the title at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago until she suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury just months before the event – her second injury to the ligament.
Her coach, Fernando Rivas, told reporters that he had "no words to describe what happened".
"Carolina knows that at an Olympic Games, you win or you lose," he said, as quoted by AFP.
"But not this way."
In this year’s Olympics, Indonesia failed to keep up its golden badminton tradition after only bagging the bronze, a repeat of a 2012 failure. In each of the 2016 and 2020 Games, badminton contributed one gold for Indonesia, respectively from Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad in mixed doubles and Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu in women’s doubles.
Indonesia was once known as a powerhouse in badminton.
China still holds the most successful national team title in the Olympics with a total of 20 golds, while Indonesia is in second place with 8 golds.
Over the past decade, however, Indonesian badminton has seen a decline in international laurels, including in the Paris Games. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
