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)