Injured Alan out of All-England team

Injured Alan out of All-England team

JAKARTA (JP): Barcelona Olympic badminton gold medalist Alan Budikusuma has been dropped from Indonesia's All-England team due to a foot injury, says Iwan Setiawan, an official from the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI).

Alan's absence, however, will not seriously affect Indonesia's chances for a victory in the men's singles, suggested Iwan prior to the team's departure for Birmingham on Saturday.

Alan advanced to the semifinals in last year's All-England but fell to compatriot Hariyanto Arbi, who emerged as the winner.

Another absentee will be Tiong Ping, one of the team's younger talents. Both Alan and Tiong Ping were scheduled to lead the pack of Indonesian second stringers at the Asia Cup badminton championships in China slated for April 5-9.

The Asia Cup is the first international championship to serve as a qualifying round for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Because the time interval between the two events is very close, Iwan said PBSI would not risk sending its top players to the Asia Cup championships. "Rather than having them exhausted and having their rankings decline, we decided to send our top players to subsequent tournaments to increase their points," Iwan said.

Iwan said PBSI has asked the National Sports Council to provide Rp 2 billion to finance the Indonesian badminton team in their preparations for the Atlanta Olympics.

The 29-strong Indonesian All-England team is expected to win three titles at the All-England championships, which would be a repeat of last year's triple sweep.

The team is made up of such top world players as men's singles champion Hariyanto Arbi, badminton queen Susi Susanti and the solid pair of Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky. (arf)