Healed Alan vows to return to the big league and defend title
Healed Alan vows to return to the big league and defend title
By Hidayat Jati
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Alan Budikusuma, defending Indonesia Open
badminton champion and gold medal winner in the 1992 Barcelona
Olympics, said that he has licked his wounds long enough and
vowed to return to the top three.
"1994 has not been exactly my best year, thanks to the my knee
injury last year," he told the Jakarta Post while watching the
many one sided matches at the Among Rogo stadium yesterday.
"But now I'm ready to make a comeback," he said.
"All the way to the top, hopefully," added the 26 year-old
shuttler.
This year Alan has failed to win the hearts of the fans and
the pundits which have been with him in the past. He has not
reached the finals in any of the international tournaments he
participated in this year.
More importantly, Alan did not make it into last month's
Thomas Cup line-up, where Indonesia finally managed to regain the
Thomas as well as the Uber Cup.
Some sports writers have doubted his chance of making to the
upcoming Asian Games next October.
"Alan's time is up, he should stay at home and give his place
to a younger player," said one journalist while watching him play
against Singaporean Hamid Khan on Wednesday.
Alan, did not look relaxed or sufficiently confident during
the early stages of his match against the old Singaporean.
Alan struggled and was behind 6-3, but, after some work, Alan
finished the set neatly at 15-7. In the second set, he loosened
up some more and executed a smart victory with a total of 15-7,
15-3 and proved the flimsiness of the sport pundits' analysis.
"I did have some trouble in finding what makes Khan tick
during the first set," Alan said to his coach immediately after
the game.
Relaxed
For the rest of the day Alan appeared quite relaxed and spent
most of his time chatting to his younger brother Henry, a
17-year-old shuttler, who is a member of the Djarum club of
Central Java.
"I'm ready to defend my title at all costs," he told the Post,
"Including the possibility of facing Joko in the quarterfinal."
He went on to tell the Post that he could understand the
mental and physical fatigue suffered by the absent Danish
players.
"It's tough being a big league athlete," he added.
"I can relate, from what I read from the papers, to what
Roberto Baggio said after missing the penalty in the World Cup
final," Alan continued, "He had to go through an incredibly tense
one month competition, no wonder he got burned at the end."
Alan admitted that he also found the endless matches and tours
very consuming at times.
He said, however, that despite all the downs, he has chosen
this life and he will always try his best.
Have the constant practicing and competing hindered his
relationship with Susi Susanti, the top women's shuttler?
"We are very close and always encourage each other," he said,
slightly irritated by the question, "but we have agreed that
careers take priority for now."
"We are not thinking about marriage in the near future," he
added.
"Right now I have the Open and the upcoming Asian Games to
think about," he concluded.