Paris: Indonesian men's singles badminton player Jonatan Christie lost to Indian representative Lakshya Sen 18-21, 12-21 in the preliminary round of Group L at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at the Port de la Chapelle arena on Wednesday. (31/7).

This defeat meant that Jojo, the nickname of Jonatan Christie, was eliminated from the Paris 2024 Olympics. For this defeat, Jojo apologized to the Indonesian people.

“First of all, I want to express my deepest apologies to all the Indonesian people. I am also sorry for not playing well today. But thank you very much for your prayers and support for me and my friends,” Jojo said after the match.

Jojo looked impressive at the start of the first game. In fact, the third seed had a big lead of up to 8-3. But after the break, Jojo made several mistakes that made his opponent more confident.

“Yes, of course, I'm very sorry. But it's a match. And so far I still don't know what to do. I played optimally earlier. A small mistake at the end of the first half made the enemy confident,” he said.

Currently, the Indonesian team still has three representatives in the badminton event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. They are Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in men's singles, Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in women's singles and Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto in men's doubles.

Chef de Mission (CdM) of the Indonesian team at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Anindya Bakrie, also witnessed Jojo's match against Lakshya Sen. According to him, at the Olympics, anything can happen.

“I saw with my own eyes, the opponent was very tough. But it's a match, there are those who win and there are losers. This is what we call the Olympic Games, there are many surprises. Our goal now is to support Ginting and Gregoria who will play this afternoon,” Anin said. (doc/nocindonesia)