Badminton recruiting vital: Siregar
ATLANTA, Georgia (Agencies): The Olympic defeats suffered by many top Indonesian shuttlers prompted noted sports observer Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar on Wednesday to urge the Badminton Association of Indonesia to speed up its regeneration program.
"Those unexpected losses should greatly alarm the association if it takes winning more medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney seriously," Mangombar, the former training director of the association, said.
"In other words, the association should speed up its efforts to recruit and prepare fresh talent to replace the existing players for the Sydney Olympics," he was quoted by Antara as saying.
Indonesia was the hot-favorite to win Olympic gold medals in the men's singles, men's doubles and women's singles. However, it failed to make the final in the men's singles after its top shuttlers, world number two Joko Supriyanto, Barcelona Olympic gold medalist Alan Budikusuma and world champion Hariyanto Arbi, were eliminated in the quarterfinals and the semifinals.
Indonesia won a gold medal in the men's doubles after Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky came back from a shaky start to win a thriller three-setter, 5-15, 15-13, 15-12, over Malaysia's Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock.
Olympic women's singles champion Susi Susanti was eliminated in a semifinal against her nemesis Bang Soo-hyun of South Korea. But Indonesia had something to cheer about, thanks to Mia Audina's three-set victory over another South Korean, Kim Ji- hyun, for a place in the women's singles final.
Indonesia's hopes in the women's doubles also went up in smoke after Eliza and Zelin Resiana lost, 7-15, 3-15, to world number one pair and eventual champions Ge Fei and Gu Jun of China.
The two Indonesian mixed doubles teams were ousted as well. Second seeds Trikus Heryanto and Minarti Timur lost, 4-15, 7-15, to Kim Dong-moon and Gil Young-ah of South Korea, while Flandy Limpele and Riseu Rosalina fell, 2-15, 15-5, 7-15, to Liu Jianjun and Sun Man of China.
Erratic play
Siregar, highlighting the erratic performances of most young Indonesian players, said that Mia Audina is the only one whose skills match those of the more experienced Susi.
"Now look at our portfolio in the men's singles. After Joko, Alan and Hariyanto, we have no players to fill their shoes," Siregar said.
He said that if the association had had more world-class players in store, it would have had more room to select players which, in turn, would have made it easier to win two tournaments held close to each other.
Siregar was referring to the Olympics and the Uber Cup and Thomas Cup championships held in Hong Kong last May. Both the cup championships were won by Indonesia for the second time running.
Siregar said the double victory in Hong Kong had made the Indonesian players overconfident which caused their downfall in Atlanta.
"It seems to me that the players, their coaches and officials were buoyed by their victories in Hong Kong. I have long warned them not to get complaisant with the victories," Siregar said, adding that Olympic victories were more important.
Indonesia won two gold medals from the men's singles and the women's singles at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, a few months after suffering upset defeats in the Thomas Cup and the Uber Cup. (arf)