Candra, Sigit renew partnership

Candra, Sigit renew partnership

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto will renew their partnership
as a doubles pair in the China Open badminton tournament in
Guangzhou in November.

The two players, whose previous partnership earned them the
world championship title in 1997, split last year and had new
partnerships -- Candra with Halim Haryanto, and Sigit with Tri
Kusharjanto -- before the Badmitton Association of Indonesia
(PBSI) decided to reunite them last month.

Men's doubles coach Christian Hadinata said he was keen on
testing their renewed partnership at the US$250,000 China Open
which is scheduled to take place from Nov. 9 to Nov. 14.

"We want to test this partnership at the tournament. Most top
shuttlers will participate in the event," Christian told The
Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

However, Christian refused to disclose specific goals for the
pair, saying that although they had a good partnership in the
past they have been training together for less than a month for
the event.

"We will wait for the outcome at the tournament first, then we
can make plans for them. They don't have any international
ranking yet," he said.

Candra and Sigit were initially paired in early 1997. They won
the World Championship in Glasgow six months later before they
were forced to split in 1998 after Sigit was banned from
international tournaments after failing a drug test.

Candra proved he was a reliable partner when he won the gold
at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 with Tony Gunawan.

As Tony chose to move to United States, Candra and Sigit were
back together in 2001 before parting again after their
unsuccessful bid at the 2003 World Championship in Birmingham,
England.

They hope the third time around will give them another
striking run in the 2005 World Championship which is to be held
in Anaheim, California.

According to Christian, both players have been doing well
during the training sessions and that, being familiar with each
other, they do not have any trouble in adapting to each other's
techniques.

Interviewed separately, Candra, who won the Copenhagen Master
with Halim at the end of last year, said that what they had to do
was work out how to reignite their motivation and fighting
spirit.

"I hope that Sigit will be more motivated in our first
tournament in the China Open," Candra said, adding that he was
very optimistic about their prospects in Guangzhou.

It will be a tough test as their opponents are Cai Yun/Fu
Haifeng, Sang Yang/Zheng Bo, Choong Tan Fuk/Lee Wan Wah of
Malaysia and current world champions, Jonas Rasmussen/Lars Paaske
of Denmark.

"Hopefully, we can at least get into the semifinals," Candra
said.