Mulyo stays in training center, says Icuk

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Taufik Hidayat's Olympic glory has prompted the national badminton training center to retain the champion's coach, Mulyo Handoyo, in what appeared to be an abrupt change in policy, given that Mulyo had initially been excluded from the center's coaching roster.

Head of development affairs at the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) Icuk Sugiarto, who also supervises the national training center in Cipayung, East Jakarta, confirmed on Monday that Mulyo would remain as Taufik's personal coach.

"We are now thinking of expanding Mulyo's authority to train other men's singles shuttlers, not only Taufik, because it will be such a waste if he's only coaching Taufik in the future," Icuk said.

His statement appeared to be a departure from his previous plan to revamp the national training center's management, including reshuffling the coaching teams.

The reshuffling plan was to appoint Indra Gunawan the coach of men's shuttlers, Hendrawan for women's shuttlers, while men's doubles would be trained by Christian Hadinata, women's doubles by Atik Djauhari and mixed doubles by Richard Mainaky.

The plan would have cost Mulyo his post.

"We never planned to replace head coaches at Cipayung. We still need a lot of good coaches who are willing to train shuttlers either there or in other regions," Icuk said.

While declining to expound upon his new plan, Icuk said the PBSI would focus more on regional training centers as part of the association's development plan.

He said the current Cipayung coach roster would be wiped clean after September's National Games in Palembang, and that only Mulyo and Joko were confirmed as of now to remain on the roster.

"We expect Mulyo to create new Taufiks and Joko to cultivate young talented shuttlers like Sony Dwi Kuncoro," Icuk said.

Taufik won the gold medal after defeating Shon Seung-mo of South Korea in the men's singles final, while Sony, who trained under Joko, contributed a men's singles bronze.

The Indonesian badminton squad won another bronze, courtesy of doubles team Eng Hian/Flandy Limpele.

Mulyo said he would let the PBSI decide what was best.

Icuk underlined there no Cipayung coach would be let go as of yet.

"People who are still coaching at Cipayung will not be fired, as we still need them for our development program. Ideally, we would like one coach to train four or five shuttlers," he said.