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.