Hundreds of juniors to compete in tourney

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

At least 720 juniors from 11 provinces will get the chance to catch the eye of talent scouts in the Jakarta Governor Cup national badminton tournament, to be held from Thursday to Sunday.

Tournament director Handianto said on Tuesday the badminton tournament, which will be held at Bung Karno Badminton Hall in Senayan, Central Jakarta, would offer total prize money of Rp 35 million (US$3600) and the Jakarta Governor's Cup.

There will be boys' singles, boys' doubles, girls' singles, and girls' doubles in the under 12 and under 14 age categories.

Shuttlers from West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, Bali, North Sumatra, the Riau archipelago, East Kalimantan, Ternate, Banten and Jakarta will participate.

"We hope the tournament would help to generate (development) of new badminton talent," Handianto said.

Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) secretary-general M.F. Siregar welcomed the junior tournament, saying that it would help his organization in talent scouting from different areas of the country.

"So far we depend on clubs to seek out talent, but now we can also look at other sources like from the junior tournament ...

"The tournament could also become part of the planned badminton league next year that will consist of tournaments both among clubs and outside."

Besides playing in the tournament, the youngsters will also get to meet top players like Olympic men's singles gold medalist Taufik Hidayat and men's doubles pair Luluk Hadiyanto/Alven Yulianto on Friday. There will also be a coaching clinic held by 1996 Olympic men's doubles gold medalist Ricky Subagja and 2000 Olympic men's doubles gold medalist Candra Wijaya on Saturday and Sunday.

The tournament is sponsored by PT Tetra Pak Indonesia in its promotional campaign for increased milk consumption by youngsters.