Indonesia's shuttlers expect tough run at Milo junior tourney

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Medan

The main draw of the Milo Junior Indonesia Open (MJIO) badminton championship begins on Wednesday with the home teenagers expecting stiff opposition, especially from the China and South Korean teams.

The Chinese, with 13 players, and the Koreans, with 12, top the seedings in all five categories.

The tournament features about 300 young shuttlers from 11 countries.

The participating countries are Belgium, Brunei, China, China Taipei, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Wales and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi team, which had planned to send two boys and two girls, failed to turn up due to a visa problem.

"We tried to push for the approval of the Iraqi team members' visas. But the government only approved their visa applications on Monday at 4:30 p.m. while the tournament starts on Wednesday," Mien Susanti, the managing director of the event organizer Gematama Kreasindo, said here on Tuesday.

"The Iraqi shuttlers would not have been able to arrive here in time, so they decided to withdraw," she said.

Given the strong field, Indonesia's badminton governing body the PBSI is staying realistic about the home side's prospects.

"We do want to take all the titles here, but we must be able to take a measure of our strong opponents," PBSI official Mimi Irawan said.

Indonesian players are made up of those from 11 badminton clubs and four players from the national training camp.

Being the members of the national camp, Mohammad Rizal, Fransisca Ratnasari, Greysia Polii and Heni Budiman are expected to carry the host's best hopes, but their tasks look difficult given that many of their foreign opponents have come to Indonesia after top showings at the Asian Junior Badminton Championships, which ended in Hwacheon, South Korea, on Sunday.

Gong Weijie of China, who was runner-up in Hwacheon, leads the seeding in the boy's singles, followed by Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto, who represents the Pelita Top One club.

His female compatriot, Lu Lan, also runner-up in Hwacheon, is the top seed in the girls' singles, with Fransisca in second.

The boys' and girls' singles rounds have 64 contenders each.

Asian champions Jung Jung-young/Lee Yong-dae of Korea top the boys' doubles, while Indonesian Putra Aditya/I Made Agung of TBS club, whose Asian performance put them in quarterfinals, are second seeds.

In the girls' doubles, Indonesian pair of Greysia/Heni second seeded behind Asian runners-up Pan Pan/Peng Chen of China.

The doubles field see 32 pairs in each of the boys' and girls' categories, while the mixed doubles consists of 34 pairs.

The Indonesian mixed doubles team of Muhammad Rizal/Greysia are also rated second to Koreans Lee Yong-dae and Kang Hae-won.