Rehan/Gloria : Fighting For Indonesia

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto has become part of the Indonesian Team for the Sudirman Cup badminton championship while no longer being a member of the national training center. Together with his partner, Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja, Rehan will carry out his responsibilities to the best of his ability.

"Of course I'm happy and proud to be included in the Sudirman Cup Team, especially since this is the first time for me," said Rehan.

The son of former badminton player Tri Kusharjanto revealed this after training at the badminton training center in Cipayung, Jakarta, Wednesday (16/4/2025). He, Gloria, and their coach at PB Djarum, Vita Marissa, have been training in Cipayung since the day before.

Rehan/Gloria are part of the 20 athletes of the "Merah Putih" team who will compete in Xiamen, China, from April 27 to May 4. They will compete in the mixed team championship featuring men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles in each meeting between the two teams.

The Sudirman Cup, a biennial championship that was first held in Jakarta in 1989, will feature 16 teams divided into four groups in the preliminary round using a round-robin format. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals. Indonesia is in Group D alongside Denmark, India, and England.

Facing tough competition since the group stage, Indonesia is reinforced by senior players complemented by young athletes for the purpose of regeneration. Based on this need, Rehan/Gloria were included in the team alongside Rinov Rivaldy, Dejan Ferdinansyah, Pitha Haningtyas Mentari, and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti in the mixed doubles category. Fadia is also prepared to play women's doubles alongside Lanny Tria Mayasari.

Rehan has never competed in world-level team championships such as the Sudirman Cup, except at the junior level. The senior-level team championship he has participated in is the 2023 Asia Mixed Team Championship, where Rehan partnered with Lisa Ayu Kusumawati.

Nevertheless, Rehan/Gloria performed quite well during the four months they partnered since Rehan was not called by PP PBSI to join the national training team in 2025. Rehan/Gloria have competed in five tournaments, four of which were in the European Tour over four consecutive weeks since the end of February.

In a series of tournaments in Europe at different levels, Rehan/Gloria reached the finals of the German Open and Orleans Masters Super 300, and then advanced to the quarterfinals of the All England Super 1000. Before losing in the quarterfinals, they defeated two pairs ranked in the top ten in the world, Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei (Malaysia) and Jesper Toft/Amelie Magelund (Denmark).

The long journey in Europe concluded with the championship title at the Poland Open. Although it was "only" a championship at the international challenge level (below the BWF World Tour structure), Rehan/Gloria needed ranking points from the tournament to achieve their target of accumulating as many points as possible at the beginning of their partnership.

As Gloria stated, she did not expect to achieve better results than anticipated with Rehan in the early tournaments. "It turns out that the performance in Europe serves as an assessment to determine the Sudirman Cup Team. We are pleased to have this opportunity," said the athlete who has also been a member of the national training center.

Based on her experience competing in various team championships, Gloria may partner with other players besides Rehan. At the 2023 Sudirman Cup in Suzhou, China, for instance, the 31-year-old athlete played twice, alongside Rinov and Dejan. Similar to her current partnership with Rehan, the status of Dejan/Gloria is that they are athletes training outside the national training center.

In addition to being determined to perform as well as possible if trusted to play, another form of Rehan/Gloria's responsibility as team members is to train at the national training center. In addition to sparring, Rehan, Gloria, and the mixed doubles athletes of the Sudirman Cup Team undergo drilling training with Vita. In this training, Vita hones the athletes' abilities one by one in various strokes at a fast tempo and repeatedly.

"I did not expect to be able to train here again. This is for the Indonesian team because the Sudirman Cup is a team championship. Moreover, there are many good training partners here," said Rehan, who views his journey in 2025 as a testament to himself after being removed from the national training center.

Athletes from other sectors are also trying to make use of the approximately one week period for training at the national training center after competing in the Asian Championship in Ningbo, China, from April 8 to 13. The women's doubles team is coached by Karel Mainaky, who moved from Japan this month. Karel leads the training of Fadia and her teammates alongside his assistant, Nitya Krishinda Maheswari.

Meanwhile, Jonatan Christie and his teammates have begun training with Indra Widjaja, who has been moved from the primary women's singles training camp. Indra is now coaching the men's singles as Mulyo Handoyo, who previously served as the head coach for all categories and men's singles, is currently focusing solely on his role as head coach.

Rehan:

-       2023 Asian Mixed Team Championship (playing with Lisa Ayu Kusumawati)

-       2017 and 2018 World Junior Team Championships

-       2017 and 2018 Asian Junior Championships

Gloria:

-       2023 Sudirman Cup, playing with Dejan and Rinov

-       Sudirman Cup 2019 (Hafiz Faisal)

-       2017 Sudirman Cup (Tontowi Ahmad)

-       BAMTC 2017 (Edi Subaktiar)