Indonesia Open loses top shuttlers
JAKARTA (JP): Denmark's top singles players Peter Gade Christensen and Camilla Martin have withdrawn from the Indonesia Open badminton championships, organizers said on Tuesday.
In a fax sent to the event's organizing committee on Monday, the Danish Badminton Association said that men's singles players Kenneth Johanssen and Peter Janum, women's singles Mette Pedersen, men's doubles team of Jim Laugesen and Thomas Stavngaard and mixed doubles duo of John Holst Christensen and Ann Jorgensen had also withdrawn from the tournament.
Organizing committee chairman Juniarto Suhandinata quoted the Danish badminton body as saying that their players would miss the US$120,000 tournament due to "administrative mistakes."
"That's their only reason," Juniarto said.
World men's singles number one Christensen and world women's singles number three Martin were expected to top the seedings for the Oct. 28-Nov. 1 competition.
But the organizers sighed with relief because the 1997 world men's singles champion Peter Rasmussen and his senior, 1996 Olympic gold medalist Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen, confirmed their participation in the event to be held at the Senayan Indoor Stadium.
Juniarto said the Chinese shuttlers had yet to confirm whether they would take part in the four-star event. The Chinese team failed to turn up for last year's meet due to visa problems.
"We will ask the International Badminton Federation (IBF) to delay the deadline of registration to this weekend," Juniarto said, as quoted by Antara.
He admitted there was nothing the association could do about the small number of participants.
Foreign players will come from the Netherlands, Denmark, Malaysia, Nigeria, Brunei, Poland and Singapore.
Provincial teams from West Java, Central Java, East Java, Jakarta, Lampung and West Nusa Tenggara will also take part in the event.
Hendrawan and Hariyanto Arbi will lead Indonesia's quest for the men's singles crown, while Mia Audina will take over the inspirational role in the women's singles from Susi Susanti who withdrew due to pregnancy. (yan)