JP/10/RUSIA
JAKARTA (JP): Badminton still takes a back seat in Russia, one of the world's sport giants, but they are on their way to becoming a real menace to the established powers.
Carrying on the Soviet Union's tradition as a badminton playing country, Russia caps its 37-year acquaintance with badminton by joining for the first time the other seven countries in this year's Uber Cup world women's badminton team championship finals.
Russia reached the long-awaited finals convincingly, producing a 5-0 rout of Canada, the Czech Republic and Switzerland before nipping Sweden, second seed and one of European badminton's glamor teams, 3-2 in their European qualifying round in Glasgow.
The fact that Sweden was without its number one, Chinese-born Lim Xiaoqing and that the Russian women's shuttlers finally crashed to a 1-4 defeat to their Danish rivals, says that this championship will be a platform for the Russians toward reaching the heights on the international level -- at the 2000 Olympics.
Banking on teenage players, the Russian team vows to do its best despite the 10-day preparations for the finals. The singles squad is composed of Marina Andrievskaya, Irena Yakhuseva and Elena Denisova, while the doubles teams feature twin sisters Irena and Marina and Chervjakova Nadezdha and Svetlana Alferova.
"We do not set a certain target here," coach Alexei Ivashia said. "We will learn a lot from the championship in an attempt to pave our players' way to matching world beating shuttlers in the future," the coach said of his realistic chances.
Ivashia said Russia is working on its Olympic bid by training children under 10 years of age among the 16,000 people who play badminton seriously there. The campaign, however, may be hampered by a classic problem; no money.
Breakdown
"We have no longer been able to rest on the funds for badminton development from the government since the breakdown of the Soviet Union," said Ivashia, adding that his players need more outings in Asia, the core of world badminton for the past four decades.
Team manager Vladimir Lifshits added that the Russian team painstakingly sought for sponsorship to bring his team here. A trade company, Sovbusiness II, gave its commitment to finance the daily expenses of the national contingent during their stay.
Russia is tipped to meet title holder China at the open of the biennial event today, with Lifshits expecting to steal a point in the singles match. Russia is grouped also with Japan and South Korea.
"We have very tough battles ahead against China and South Korea, but we have the opportunity to match Japan," Ivashia predicted.
Andrievskaya, national number one, however, is doubtful of her team's chances of carving out history. The 19-year-old student of the Moscow-based Institute of Physical Culture favors either China, host Indonesia or South Korea to take the top honors. (amd) Today's program (begins 7.30 p.m.): Thomas Cup: Indonesia v Finland; China v Sweden Uber Cup : S. Korea v Japan; China v Russia