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)