Mulyo stays in training center, says Icuk
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.