Women’s Singles World champion Carolina Marin and young Indonesian doubles player Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo won the Badminton Fans’ Award for international and Indonesian players respectively, in an online poll conducted by PBSI.

Marin was voted the fans’ favourite player, ahead of Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand) and Lee Yong Dae (Korea). Sukamuljo won the fan vote ahead of Mohammad Ahsan and Jonatan Christie. The three winners in each category received their awards at the welcome dinner in honour of the participants of the Total BWF World Championships hosted by the Governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, yesterday.

Among the luminaries who attended the welcome dinner were BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer, 1992 Olympic champions Allan Budi Kusuma and Susi Susanti; former Olympic and World champion Taufik Hidayat; Denmark greats Peter Gade and Morten Frost, and several players, coaches and officials.

Marin polled 22,501 votes, ahead of Intanon (22,425) and Lee Yong Dae (15,362). Sukamuljo had 30,641 votes, way higher than Ahsan (15,515) and Jonatan Christie (12,438).

Voting for the opinion poll was done on the PBSI’s website from 9 July to 2 August 2015.

Sukamuljo was the unexpected winner over senior compatriots like Liliyana Natsir, Hendra Setiawan, Mohammad Ahsan and Greysia Polii.

“Thank you for the award given to me. To all my supporters, thank you for the support. This appreciation will add to my motivation. Hopefully I can perform better,” said Sukamuljo.

Marin was also thrilled at receiving the award and thanked her Indonesian fans.