Badminton official looks ahead to Sydney Olympics
Badminton official looks ahead to Sydney Olympics
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian badminton players bound for the
upcoming Asian Games look set to form the backbone of the
national team for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, an official
said on Thursday.
The Badminton Association of Indonesia's official in charge of
athletes development, Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar, said the
shuttlers had proved their potential to maintain the country's
gold medal winning tradition at the Olympics with their rapid
improvement this season.
"Selection is easy because we just go by the latest IBF
(International Badminton Federation) rankings," Siregar said.
World men's singles number two Hendrawan, No. 12 Marlev
Mainaky and No. 16 Taufik Hidayat will lead Indonesia's bid to
retain the gold medal in the men's team event at the Asiad.
Hendrawan and Taufik will also play in the individual singles
event.
Marlev and Taufik will make their Asian Games debut in
Bangkok.
The men's doubles teams will be Olympic gold medalists Ricky
Subagja and Rexy Mainaky and a makeshift pairing of Candra Wijaya
and Tony Gunawan.
Mia Audina, Meiluawati and Cindana form the women's singles
team, while Indonesia Open champions Elysa Nathanael and Deyana
Lomban and the second-string tandem of Carmelita and Indarti
Issoliana will play doubles.
In the mixed doubles, Indonesia is relying on Indonesia Open
champions Tri Kusharjanto and Minarti Timur and the second-choice
team of Marlev and Meiluawati.
Indonesia won the men's team, men's singles and men's doubles
gold medals at the last Asiad held in the Japanese city of
Hiroshima four years ago. The three golds were Indonesia's only
top honors at the 1994 event.
Siregar said the national badminton body had nominated 12 of
the players for the Sydney Olympics. They will have to undergo
several trials before the possible Olympic squad is announced in
April next year.
The badminton body will also give former men's singles world
champion Hariyanto Arbi and second-stringer Nunung Subandoro
another chance to join the team, Siregar said.
Hariyanto's bid to retain his Asian Games gold medal was
foiled by a back injury.
Badminton players around the world will begin the 12-month-
long race to qualify for the 2000 Olympics at the Sudirman Cup
world mixed team championships in May 1999.
"By January 2000, we must be able to estimate how many medals
we can win at the Olympics. We want to match our performance in
1992 and avoid the mistakes we made at the 1996 Olympics,"
Siregar said.
Indonesia swept the two singles crowns through Susi Susanti
and Alan Budikusuma when badminton made its debut as an Olympic
medal sport in Barcelona in 1992, however four years later a gold
medal from Ricky and Rexy was all the country could manage.
Regarding the Asiad, Hendrawan, Taufik and Marlev said they
were ready to stave off challenges from the continent's regular
badminton powers of China, Malaysia and South Korea.
National coach Mulyo Handoyo predicted that Chinese shuttlers
stood the biggest chance of stealing Indonesia's thunder and
winning the men's singles gold.
"We must be aware of China's Sun Jun and Luo Yigang, as well
as Malaysia's Yong Hock Kin and Wong Chun Han who may steal the
show," the men's singles coach said.
Mulyo defended the choice of 17-year-old Taufik over the more
experienced Marlev for the individual men's singles event, saying
that Marlev lacked consistency. (yan)