Badminton draw issued for Olympics

HONG KONG (JP): The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games has listed 192 badminton players who qualified for the Games this July, Steve Kearney, the committee official in charge of badminton competition, announced here yesterday.

The list referred to the world rankings issued on April 1, with Indonesia's Joko Suprianto topping the men's singles, followed by Denmark's Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen at second, and Hariyanto Arbi of Indonesia in third place.

In the women's doubles, the first five places went to China's Ye Zhaoying, Indonesia's Susi Susanti at second, Bang Soo-hyun of South Korea at third, Lim Xiaoqing of Sweden fourth and Camilla Martin of Denmark fifth.

Other names topping the list are familiar: Indonesia's Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky in the men's doubles, South Korea's partnership of Gil Young-ah and Jang Hye-ock in the women's doubles and South Korean duo of Park Joo-bong and Ra Kyung-min in the mixed doubles.

In addition, six wild-card entries have been added. The six names are Kenneth Erichsen of Guatemala, Mario Carulla of Peru and Oscar Brandon of Suriname in the men's division. In the women's division, the wild card entrants are Rhonda Cator of Australia, Diana Koleva of Bulgaria and Andrea Odor of Hungary.

The International Badminton Federation has decided to allow each country to field only three singles and pairs of each gender in the Olympic badminton competition, slated from July 24 to Aug. at the Georgia State University stadium. (arf)