History was made through Guatemala’s Kevin Gordon as the first badminton player from Pan-American continent who made it to the semifinals at the Olympic Games after defeating South Korean athlete Heo Kwanghee in straight games 21-13, 21-18.
This achievement didn’t come easily. Gordon is finally able to reach this stage at 35 years old, in his fourth Olympics. Apparently, Indonesia has some influence on this historic achievement.
Indonesia is one of Asian countries that produces the best badminton players. However, Indonesia’s contribution to the badminton world isn’t only the players, but also the coaches.
Kevin Gordon’s coach, Muamar Qadafi, is an Indonesian coach who came from Central Java province of Indonesia. For him, Guatemala is not a foreign country as this is already his second period coaching in Guatemala. “The first period is from 2009 to 2010. The second period is 2017 until now,'' said Qadafi.
The story began when two of his colleagues at Djarum Badminton Club, Roy Purnomo and Agustinus Sartono, became sparring partners in Peru. ''At that time, the Peruvian coach from China wanted to resign. The coach told his two friends that he needed someone to continue his duties,'' recalls the man born October 30, 1981. Finally, in 2005, Qadafi decided to leave Djarum Badminton Club and flew to Peru. At the beginning, his name was not known.
''After I brought Peru to the PanAm Junior 2006 Championship, it’s a competition just like Asian Junior Championship in Asia, people slowly started to recognize me,'' said Qadafi, who now lives in Jogjakarta when he returns to Indonesia. As he became more famous, he accepted an offer to coach in Guatemala. However, he was only there for one season. In the first period, Qadafi traveled to various countries. Until finally the second offer came back to him in 2017. "I went back to Peru and also coached in Mexico," he continued. With a more mature experience, Qadafi made Guatemala a badminton power in Latin America.
The hands of the Indonesian coaches are also in Malaysia. The presence of Flandy Limpele led the country to win bronze in the men's doubles at Tokyo 2020 Olympics through the pair Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik who defeated Indonesia's senior doubles Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan in the rubber game 17-21, 21-17, 21-14.
Flandy has only been with the Malaysian team recently, however, even in a relatively short period of time, his touch has paid off. Flandy used to be a doubles badminton player. He won a bronze medal in men's doubles at the 2004 Athens Olympics when paired with Eng Hian. In Tokyo 2020, Eng Hian coached the Indonesian women's doubles and brought his team, Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu to the final.
Prior to coaching with Malaysia, Flandy was the coach of India. He led Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty to a spot at the world's top 10. This is the one thing Indian doubles pairs haven't done in a long time.
Currently, there are at least 12 Indonesian coaches in 9 different countries around the world. Across Asia, there are Hendrawan, Flandy Limpele, Paulus Firman, and Indra Wijaya in Malaysia, Mulyo Handoyo in Singapore, Rexy Mainaky in Thailand and Namrih Suroto in India.
Meanwhile, in the European continent, there are Imam Teguh in Finland, Davis Efraim in Ireland, Didi Purwanto in Hungary, and Indra Bagus in Belgium. And lastly, in Pan-American continent there’s Muamar Qadafi in Guatemala.
