Badminton recruiting vital: Siregar
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)