Justian resigns from IBF

JAKARTA: Following his defeat in the election for the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) chairmanship, Justian Suhandinata has resigned from his positions as IBF vice president and council member, the worldbadminton.net website reported on Thursday.

In his resignation letter, Justian -- also a candidate during the IBF's presidential elections last June -- said he wished to resign from his post in order to allow the new PBSI board of executives to have a "freer foreign policy". The position will be left vacant until the 2002 Annual General Meeting, scheduled for March.

Collecting only 13 votes, Justian lost the election to businessman Chairul Tanjung who received a landslide result of 252 votes during the PBSI congress last week. Another 64 votes were abstentions after the participants walked out of the congress venue.

Earlier in June, Justian lost to Korn Dabbaransi of Thailand in his campaign for the IBF top post in Seville, Spain. Justian only secured 13 votes out of 213 while Korn got 180 votes. -- JP