Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan gave Indonesia its first gold medal of the Olympics Saturday.

The defeated China's Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng in the badminton men's doubles final.

The top-seeded Kido and Setiawan recovered from a shaky start to win 12-21, 21-11, 21-16 over the No 2 pair.

It was Indonesia's second badminton medal of the day (Maria Kristin Yulianti won bronze in women's singles earlier).

Kido Markis (L) and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia play against China's Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun in their men's doble gold medal match of the badminton event during the 2008 Beijing Olympic at the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium on August 16, 2008. Markis and Setiawan defeated Cai and Fu by 12-21, 21-11, 21-16. [Agencies]

After Setiawan made a cross-court backhand just out of Cai's reach to win the match, the Indonesians embraced each other before being hugged in a rugby-lile tackle by their coach.

Markis Dido and Hendra Setiawan are the 2007 world champions while Fu and Cai were 2006 world champions.

The pairs had an equal head-to-head record, three wins each, in their past six encounters.

But the pressure was on the Chinese: Apart from playing at home, the men's doubles gold is the only onr China has never won in the Olympics.

The most badminton gold medals China can win now is three, the same number it won four years ago in Athens.

Said Kido afterwards: "I'm really happy to win our country its first gold medal at the Games. Tomorrow is our Independence Day and we are glad to celebrate the special occasion with our victory. I'm also happy to continue the tradition in this event."

The Chinese pair was obviously disappointed but Fu said there were no regrets.

"I have no regrets in the Olympics," he said. Since 2002 we have fought for this dream and we really made some progress.

"We are a little bit upset not winning the gold but I hope our silver medal is a new start for our men's doubles.

"We still have many strong young doubles players on our team but they don't have many opportunities to compete in the big events. Sometimes they can beat us.

Added Cai Yun: "Our teammates have done a great job at the Olympics and we should learn from them. We did our best in the game.

"We are the only men's doubles pair among the top ranked players and we have been under great pressure since 2002 to take the title at the Games

"It seemed there was a knife behind my back. Now I feel  very relieved after the final.