RI denied Olympic women's singles bet<\/p>\n
Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia has been deprived of the chance of contending the
\nwomen's singles in the badminton competition at the next Olympic
\nGames in Athens, following the announcement of the rankings by
\nthe International Badminton Federation on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Games will run from Aug. 13 to 29. The badminton
\ncompetition has a quota of 172 players in five events and as many
\nas 30 countries will be playing in the competition.<\/p>\n
According to the IBF rules, only players in the top 16 of the
\nIBF rankings as of May 1 are eligible to compete at Athens.
\nCountries can only send a maximum of three entries in each of the
\nevents.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has two entries in men's singles, three in men's
\ndoubles, two in mixed doubles and one in the women's doubles.<\/p>\n
The women's singles event sees no Indonesia's contenders.
\nIndonesia's best hope, Silvi Antarini, is ranked only 66th in the
\nworld. Other players of note, Adrianti Firdasari and Maria
\nKristin are playing with Silvi in Indonesia's team for this
\nweek's Uber Cup in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Christian Hadinata, the director of the national training
\ncenter, said that the failure to have a women's singles player in
\nthe Olympics had been predicted as \"Indonesia's hopefuls were
\nstill relatively new\".<\/p>\n
About the Olympics prospects, Christian said the team would
\nrest its hopes on men's singles, doubles and mixed doubles.<\/p>\n
The top Indonesian men's singles contenders are Sony Dwi
\nKuncoro and Taufik Hidayat.<\/p>\n
Sony, the world No 9, was a certainty for the Games, while
\nAsia champion Taufik, who is ranked No. 17, will be going only
\nbecause China's top-ranked Xia Xuanze and Chen Yu were unable to
\njoin their compatriots Lin Dan, Chen Hong and Bao Chunlai due to
\nthe IBF's quota.<\/p>\n
The quota also denies 12th-ranked men's doubles pair Candra
\nWijaya\/Halim Haryanto a place in the Olympics, with Indonesia
\nhaving another three pairs ahead of them -- Hadiyanto\/Alven
\nYulianto (No. 7), Flandy Limpele\/Eng Hian (No. 8) and Sigit
\nBudiarto\/Tri Kusharjanto (No. 10).<\/p>\n
With Tony Gunawan, who now plays for the United States, Candra
\nwon the Olympic gold in Sydney four years ago.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has two mixed doubles pairs going to Athens: Nova
\nWidianto\/Vita Marissa and Anggun Nugroho\/Eny Widiowati, while Jo
\nNovita\/Lita Nurlita will be Indonesia's only participants in the
\nwomen's doubles.<\/p>\n
Out of 30 countries participating in the badminton competition
\nat the Games, China, which swept four of the five titles in
\nSydney, has the most entries in the list with 13, followed by
\nSouth Korea with 12.<\/p>\n
The European badminton giant Denmark will send 10 entries.<\/p>\n
Japan surprisingly managed nine entries, while Britain with
\neight has the same number of entries as Indonesia. Thailand,
\nMalaysia and Germany have six entries apiece.<\/p>",
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