24 countries to join badminton c'ships

JAKARTA (JP): One hundred and eighty-five players from 24 countries will compete in the Asian Badminton Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Sept. 3 to Sept 7.

The Asian Badminton Confederation's (ABC) secretary general, Punch Gunalan, said from Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday that the participation of the 24 countries showed the popularity of badminton in Asia.

"I am delighted with the enthusiasm of the 24 countries taking part in the championships. We hope the championships can improve both the quality and popularity of badminton," Gunalan said.

The competing countries are Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China including Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Chinese Taipei, Iran, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Vietnam and Thailand.

The winners will share a US$136,000 (Rp 50 million) purse.

The championships will boast several players like Ong Ewe Hock, Cheah Soon Kit, Lee Wan Wah, Chon Tan Fook (Malaysia), Luo Yigang, Cheng Gang, Lin Liwen, Yhao Yan, Zeng Yaqiong, Dong Jiong or Sun Jun (China), Jeffer Rosobin, George Rimarchdi, Hendrawan, Lidya Djaelawijaya, Rudy Wijaya (Indonesia) and Lee Joo-hyun (South Korea).

Luo Yigang and Jeffer Rosobin reached the men's singles final at last year's Asian Badminton Championships.

Luo Yigang also reached the 1996 China Open final and Jeffer reached the 1996 World Cup final.

There semifinals and finals will be televised live by RTM (Malaysia), ESPN (Asia), Guangdong TV (Bangladesh), ANteve (Indonesia) and TV 12 (Singapore).

Tickets range from RM 5 to RM 30 and will be on sale at the of Stadium Negara from Sept. 1.

The ABC will also hold its annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur. (lnt)