For the first time in Indonesia's badminton history, it failed to qualify women's doubles in the Grand Prix Finals in Brunei Darussalam starting on Wednesday, the Jakarta Post reported Monday.

Other bad news is that the 1996 Olympics gold medalists Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky also failed to qualify for the 250,000 U.S.dollars event for the first time since their participation in 1992.

The International Badminton Federation (IBF) rules say only eight best doubles in the men's, women's and mixed doubles events can be admitted to compete in the finals.

Indonesia's Etty Tantri and Cynthia Tuwankotta are ninth ranked in the world while seniors Elysa Nathanael and Deyana Lomban are in 10th place.

Ricky and Rexy are only ranked 11th.

The Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) training director Christian Hadinata said that Elysa and Deyana had been unable to boost their performance since early this year as Elysa had been suffering from a knee injury.

"Despite tougher competition in the women's sector, our shuttlers performances' are decreasing as they lack self-confidence which can occur when the athletes and their coaches do not have a close relationship," he said.

Separately, Rexy said he failed to qualify for the closing-year event not because of his trip to England, where he plans to coach after retirement.

"Ricky and I had planned to compete in the Danish Open in September two weeks prior to D-day because we realized we must secure our positions in the event as we were only in seventh position in the world. But PBSI secretary general Leo Wiranata declined our request saying it was too late to register us.

"Three days before the just-concluded China Open took place, PBSI tried really hard to register us because we dropped from seventh to 11th position. I was in England and Ricky called me saying that I must rush home to compete in the event. When the China Open organizers declined the request, they put the blame on me," Rexy said.

"I went to England with the permission of PBSI officials. If only they had told me earlier that Ricky and I had to perform in the China Open, I would have canceled my flight to England to compete in the event," he added.

Rexy said he would move to England after the Olympic Games in Sydney next year.

"Christian told us that we must focus our attention on the Olympics and cancel our plans to retire. We will take part in the remaining tournaments. Ricky and I experienced the pressure in the Olympics and it was really tough to overcome it. Christian hopes we can share our experiences especially with our successors Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan," he added.