August 22, 2026 | 04:35 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia’s wait for a gold medal at the BWF World Championships will continue after mixed doubles pair Amri Syahnawi and Nita Violina Marwah were knocked out in the semifinals of the 2026 edition in New Delhi, India, on Saturday.
Amri/Nita, Indonesia’s only medalists this year, lost a tightly contested 97-minute semifinal to world No. 1 Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping of China, 22-20, 14-21, 20-22.
The result secured Indonesia a bronze medal but extended its wait for a world title since men’s doubles pair Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan won the championship in 2019 in Basel, Switzerland.
Ahsan/Hendra defeated Japan’s Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi 25-23, 9-21, 21-15 in the final to claim their third world title as a pair, following their triumphs in 2013 and 2015.
Since then, Indonesia has continued to send players to the podium at every World Championships it has participated in, but has yet to reclaim the top prize.
Indonesia Maintains Podium Streak
Indonesia skipped the 2021 World Championships in Huelva, Spain, after the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) withdrew its entire team over safety concerns amid the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Upon returning at the 2022 World Championships in Tokyo, Ahsan/Hendra reached the final, where they settled for silver after losing 19-21, 14-21 to Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.
Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto also won bronze, giving Indonesia two medals at the tournament.
A year later, the medal baton passed to women’s doubles pair Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.
Apriyani/Fadia reached the 2023 World Championship final in Copenhagen before losing 16-21, 12-21 to top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China. Their silver was Indonesia’s only medal that year.
The World Championships were not held in 2024 as the tournament coincided with the Paris Olympics.
At the 2025 edition in Paris, women’s singles player Putri Kusuma Wardani kept Indonesia’s medal streak alive. She was the country’s only player to reach the podium, advancing to the semifinals before losing 17-21, 21-14, 6-21 to Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi.
Amri/Nita Come Close
This year, the medal tradition shifted to mixed doubles through Amri/Nita, who were making their World Championship debut.
The unseeded pair emerged as Indonesia’s furthest-reaching representatives in New Delhi after upsetting several seeded opponents. They defeated 2026 All England champions Ye Hong Wei and Nicole Gonzales Chan in the round of 16 before overcoming No. 11 seeds Yang Po-Hsuan and Hu Ling Fang in the quarterfinals.
They came agonizingly close to ending Indonesia’s gold-medal drought in the semifinal against Feng/Huang, taking the deciding game to 20-20.
The Chinese pair, however, won the final two points to secure their place in the final, leaving Amri/Nita with bronze and Indonesia without a representative in the championship match.
Across the four World Championships Indonesia has contested since Ahsan/Hendra’s 2019 triumph, the country has collected five medals: two silver and three bronze.
The medals have come from different disciplines, with Ahsan/Hendra and Fajar/Rian contributing in men’s doubles in 2022, Apriyani/Fadia in women’s doubles in 2023, Putri in women’s singles in 2025, and Amri/Nita in mixed doubles this year.
Indonesia has therefore maintained its presence on the World Championship podium, but seven years after Ahsan/Hendra’s triumph in Basel, the country’s wait for another world title continues.
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