OLYMPICS / Barcelona 1992 - Round-Up: Badminton: Indonesia off the mark

INDONESIA had to wait for 40 years for its first Olympic title - Susi Susanti's gold in the women's singles in badminton. The wait for title No 2 lasted just two hours.

And a romantic tale it is too, as the men's singles winner was Susanti's boyfriend, Allan Budi Kusuma, who caused an upset by beating last year's All-England champion, Ardy Wiranata, 15-12, 18-13 in a match lasting an hour and 13 minutes that was full of patient rallies.

'It didn't affect me in any way that Susi had already won a gold,' Kusuma said rather ungallantly. 'I just set out to fight hard and not give anything away.'

Susanti won 5-11, 11-5, 11-3 against Bang Soo-Hyun, the 19- year-old South Korean who also lost in the All-England final to China's world champion, Tang Jiuhong. Susanti did watch Kusuma this time, unlike in the semi-final when her nerves got the better of her.

The first Olympic badminton tournament was not good for the Chinese, so impressive in other sports. All their top men, including the world champion, Zhao Jinhua, failed. In the women's singles there were only bronzes for Tang and Huang Hua.