Christian back to coaching Badminton

Christian back to coaching Badminton

JAKARTA (JP): The Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI)
official in charge of athletes' development, Mangombar Ferdinand
Siregar, denied rumors which said national training director
Christian Hadinata would resign from his post.

"It's not true. Christian will just focus his attention on
coaching the men's doubles because it's the only event we have a
chance to win a gold in the 2000 Olympics," Siregar said in a
telephone interview.

Reports said on Tuesday that Christian would resign due to
disappointment over PBSI chairman Subagyo Hadisiswoyo, who often
used his veto rights to disapprove of Christian's training
programs.

But Christian himself said he wanted to only focus on the
men's doubles training.

Siregar said Christian would be replaced either by himself or
deputy Hadi Nasri until the Olympics 2000.

"Can you imagine if we fail to win a gold in the Olympics," he
said, referring to Indonesia's shameful failure in the Sudirman
Cup and World Championships in Copenhagen where none of the
national shuttlers reached the semifinals.

Christian, a former doubles specialist, had contributed a
great deal to the 1996 Olympics gold when his athletes Ricky
Subagja and Rexy Mainaky beat Malaysians Cheah Soon Kit and Yap
Kim Hock in a thrilling deciding game final. He also partnered
Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto who beat the same Malaysian
pairs of Cheah and Yap in the 1997 World Championships.

Christian said his position as training director made it
difficult to make a decision on the men's doubles because other
coaches from other events would consider him subjective.

"I just want to be objective," he said.

But Herry Imam Pierngadi and Sigit Pamungkas have been
coaching the men's doubles since Christian was appointed director
in December 1997.

Siregar said PBSI could not rely on Herry due to his lack of
experience.

"We used to have Atiek (Djauhari) who was also experienced to
help Christian. But Herry was too young to prepare athletes for
the biggest event," he said.

Atiek resigned from PBSI last year and moved to Malmo, Sweden,
where he is responsible for the Swedish national team.

Siregar said Christian had to make his priorities on which
doubles team to concentrate on to qualify for the 2000 Olympics.

"We already have the 1999 All England champion Candra Wijaya
and Tony Gunawan and new partnerships of Flandy Limpele and Eng
Hian. But we are still looking for the third pair. We have the
1996 Olympics Ricky and Rexy and old hands Antonius and Denny
Kantono," he said.

Another pair preparing to qualify for the Olympics is Sigit
Budiarto and new partner Halim Heryanto. Sigit was banned from
competition until Nov. 16 due to involvement in using the banned
substance of nandrolone.

Siregar said he had contacted physical trainer Tahir Djide to
prepare the shuttlers' physical condition. He had also requested
the National Sports Council (KONI) chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar
to provide experts in psychology, nutrition and other aspects to
support the Olympics program.(yan)