Ichinomiya, Japan. Indonesia ended a 28-year wait for Asian Games men’s team badminton gold on Thursday, fighting back from 2-0 down to beat China 3-2 in a dramatic final at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games.

Indonesia had not won the men’s team title since the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok but completed its comeback through Moh Zaki Ubaidillah in the decisive fifth match.

China took control of the final after Shi Yu Qi beat Jonatan Christie 21-13, 21-18, before Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang defeated Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri 22-20, 19-21, 21-14.

With Indonesia facing defeat, Alwi Farhan kept its hopes alive by beating Li Shifeng 23-21, 15-21, 21-16 to cut China’s lead to 2-1.

Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin then leveled the tie, overcoming He Ji Ting and Liu Yi 23-21, 21-10.

Ubaidillah, known as Ubed, completed the comeback in the fifth match, beating Weng Hongyang 23-21, 21-12 to secure Indonesia’s first men’s team badminton gold at the Asian Games in 28 years.

The victory capped a remarkable turnaround after Indonesia had lost the opening two matches.

Leo and Daniel had drawn motivation from their disappointing team campaign at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, where Indonesia lost to South Korea.

“We learned from our mistakes in Hangzhou. We didn’t want to make the same mistakes again. That became our motivation to win,” Daniel said.

Leo said he and Daniel adopted a “nothing to lose” approach after trailing 17-20 in the first game against He and Liu.

“We just tried to get the shuttle back into play. It turned out we could turn things around,” Leo said.

Alwi, who started Indonesia’s comeback, said he wanted to keep his teammates believing the final was still within reach.

“I wanted to show that the game is not over yet. There was still hope for us to win the gold medal. This was a valuable opportunity, so we had to make the most of it. Now or never,” Alwi said.

Ubed then delivered the decisive point to bring the long wait to an end.

Add as a preferred source on Google +