THE young and dangerous Indonesian men’s doubles pair Pramudya Kusumawardana-Yeremia Rambitan are bent on outwitting their more established seniors to claim a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Although the duo are ranked sixth among the Indonesians, the 2022 Asian Championships winners have not thrown in the towel.
The Indonesian men’s doubles department looks so formidable that six of their pairs are in the top 24. They are world No. 1 Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto, world No. 2 Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan, Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana (No. 11), Leo Rolly-Daniel Marthin (No. 14), Marcus Fernaldi-Kevin Sanjaya (No. 23), followed by Pramudya-Yeremia who are at No. 24.
Despite losing six months last year after Yeremia suffered a serious knee injury during the Indonesian Open in July, Pramudya said they can still bridge the gap and do the unthinkable, which is to break into the top eight and claim one of the two places for the Olympics.
The pair started their journey at the Malaysian Open, their first tournament together since the injury intervention, when they defeated South Korean veterans Ko Sung-hyun-Shin Baek-cheol 21-12, 21-17 to advance to the second round.
“I had to wait for six months for Yeremia to recover from the knee injury and glad that we are back as a pair again.
“Although we have lost precious time, it is still within reach to claim a place in the Olympics,” said the 22-year-old Pramudya.
“Our battle within the Indonesian team is intense as our seniors are very good but we are prepared to face them in tournaments. I can’t single out anyone as the strongest pair as all of them can play so well.
“We have another 15 months to ensure that we are good enough to claim a place in the Paris Olympic Games and we need to keep beating our senior players to prove our worth.”
They will receive an opportunity to overcome one of their compatriots as they will meet veterans Hendra-Ahsan in the second round tomorrow.
Hendra-Ahsan cleared the first round after beating He Jiting-Zhao Haodong of China 19-21, 21-8, 21-13.
