Badminton draw issued for Olympics

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)