Dong promises to retain World Cup title

By Primastuti Handayani

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Defending champion Dong Jiong of China promised to retain his title at the 1997 Sanyo World Cup Badminton Championships at Among Rogo Sports Hall here.

Dong, top seeded in the championships, told a press conference yesterday that he had been preparing for the cup and: "I want to be the champion this time".

At the 1996 championships in Jakarta, Dong won the title after beating unseeded Jeffer Rosobin of Indonesia.

"I'll do my best but I think it's difficult to know who will really win the championships," he said through an interpreter.

Dong said that Indonesia was China's toughest rival at the championships, which start today and end Sunday.

"Although the Chinese team is ready for the championships I think Indonesia will be hard to beat," he said.

Dong will be in group A with Jeroen van Dijk of the Netherlands, Martin Lundgaard Hansen of Denmark and Indonesia's Indra Wijaya. He will meet van Dijk today in the round-robin match.

Dong beat Indra in the 1996 Chinese Open while Indra took revenge in the Grand Prix Finals in Bali in December 1996.

Earlier yesterday Indra said that he was sure he would beat Dong again.

"I'm very sure that I can beat him again like I did last year," he said.

Meanwhile, Joko Suprianto of Indonesia said he was still worried about a thigh injury he sustained at the Grand Prix Finals.

"I felt nothing during practice but when I fought hard in a tough match, like I did against Lou Yigang of China in the Malaysia Open last month, it hurt again," he said.

"I just hope that I won't sustain any injury during the championships," he added.

Joko failed to perform last year and was replaced by Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist.

Joko is scheduled to play against Thomas Johansson of Sweden in today's first match.

Meanwhile, Mia Audina's coach Retno Kustiyah was optimistic that Mia would make it to the semifinals.

"Her condition is improving, I just hope she will play as well as she did in the Singapore Open last month. She doesn't have internal problems anymore," she said.

Mia will meet Marina Andrievskaya of Sweden today.

South Korean coach Kim Moon-soo said he was sure that his men's doubles team of Lee Dong-soo/Yoo Yong-sung would reach the final.

"Our men's doubles have a big chance to reach the final. Indonesia has strong doubles but the Koreans are hard training. Our main problem is Sigit Budiarto/Candra Wijaya," he said.

Lee/Yoo will meet Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky in Group B. The Koreans lead 2-1 against the 1996 Olympic gold medalists.

Kim said: "Lee/Yoo always lost to Sigit/Candra. From four meetings, Sigit/Candra beat them three times while we only won once."

Lee/Yoo beat Sigit/Candra in the Swiss Open in March but the Indonesians took revenge at the World Championship in Glasgow in May and kept winning at the Indonesian Open and the Singapore Open last month.

Scoring

Jeff Robson, vice president of the IBF, told yesterday's conference that the championship would use the new scoring system.

The system, which was tried at last year's championship, will give a 90-second break to players at point 8 for the men's singles and all doubles, and at point 6 for the women's singles.

During the break, which is meant for commercial breaks, coaches are allowed to give instructions to the players.

The system will only give a chance of deuce at point 14, not at point 13 and point 14 as before.

"The players can choose to have only one point deuce or sudden death and three points," Robson said.

Robson said many people disagreed with the system last year before it was tried in the championships.

"But after they watched it, players, officials, and media people came to me and said the system was good," he said.

The IBF agreed to replace Deyana Lomban, who partnered Indarti Isolina in the women's doubles, with old hand Finarsih.

Deyana injured her left ankle during practice a week ago.