Indonesia may lag behind Thailand and Malaysia in the medal tally at the 2026 Asian Games, but its prestige as a major badminton force in Southeast Asia cannot be below those two countries.
By the tenth day, Thailand and Malaysia had far surpassed Indonesia in the medal tally.
Thailand and Malaysia have won nine and six gold medals, respectively. Indonesia has only two.
It is very difficult to get close to Thailand, but it is still very possible to overtake Malaysia because Indonesia still has a big chance to get another gold medal.
Sport climbing, which just started competition on Tuesday, is one of the most likely medal contenders for Indonesia. There could also be additional gold medals from esports.
What is certain is that on Tuesday, badminton has a very big chance for Indonesia to win another gold medal after the mixed doubles pair Amri Syahnawi/Nita Violina Marwah and the men's doubles pair Leo Carnando/Daniel Marthin qualified for the final.
There are very high hopes for Amri/Nita and Leo/Daniel that their struggle will end on the winner's podium.
This high level of hope arose after seeing their progress to the final, which revived Indonesia's hopes for gold, especially after defeating their opponents in the semifinals on Monday (September 28).
The two Indonesian representatives in two of the five singles badminton finals at the 2026 Asian Games advanced to the finals in stunning and sensational fashion, defeating world number one players.
Amri/Nita, who are ranked 15th in the world, were forced to play three games in the second round and quarter-finals, one of which was by Maya Taguchi/Yuta Watanabe, who are ranked 13th in the world.
But in the semifinal against world number one Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping, Amri/Nita performed almost flawlessly, and dictated both games they won.
Surprisingly, they defeated Feng/Huang, who were 14 places ahead and 58,430 points ahead of them, according to the BWF rankings.
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