Junior shuttlers set for SEA Games debut

JAKARTA (JP): The Badminton Association of Indonesia plans to field juniors in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Brunei Darussalam in August.

The association's deputy chief of athletes development, Hadi Nasri, told reporters on Tuesday that the organization would bring up the plan in discussion with the National Sports Council soon.

"It remains an idea but we hope the council will understand. Our young players lack experience of a team event, while their world-class compatriots have demonstrated their great achievements in the Thomas and Uber Cup championships, the Asian Games and the Olympics," Hadi said.

"We must give our juniors an opportunity to handle a bigger responsibility and we think the SEA Games is the right moment," he added.

Hadi said there was no need to field the likes of 1996 Olympics gold medalists Ricky Ahmad Subagja and Rexy Ronald Mainaky in an event like the SEA Games.

"The SEA Games is the right arena for our young players to demonstrate their prowess," he said.

He said Indonesia's top guns would likely miss the Games for bigger events such as the World Championships and the Sudirman Cup mixed team championship, both scheduled for May.

Members of the country's badminton elite forces usually play in eight tournaments a season.

In the 1997 SEA Games here the Indonesian badminton team was at full strength as it made a clean sweep. Former world number ones in women's and men's singles, Susi Susanti and Hariyanto Arbi respectively, Ricky and Rexy, the 1997 world men's doubles champions Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto and former world top mixed doubles team of Tri Kusherjanto and Minarti Timur were in the squad that won all seven gold medals at stake in the sport.

Hadi said that second stringers like Rony Agustinus, Johan Hadi Kusuma, Irwansyah, Yudi Suprayogi in the men's singles and Ellen Angelina in the women's singles were expected to fill their seniors' shoes in the August SEA Games.

The junior players will turn up for the Korean Open and Taipei Masters this week and next week respectively.

"We plan to send our juniors to as many international events as possible this year," he said.

He predicted Indonesia's toughest opposition in this year's SEA Games would come from Malaysia in the men's singles and doubles and Thailand in the women's singles and men's doubles. (yan)