National shuttlers consider contract dispute settled

National shuttlers consider contract dispute settled

JAKARTA (JP): National shuttlers consider the contract dispute
between players and the Badminton Association of Indonesia as
settled.

"The contract deal disagreement is finished now, since Pak
Soerjadi (the association's chairman) promised to give us the
money," national badminton queen Susi Susanti said.

Soerjadi said that there was a financial mistake in the
association's reports and urged officials to solve the problem
before April.

The association still has to pay the players US$197,000 for
their August-September-October contract with Yonex, a Japanese
sports equipment company.

"The problem is not only the money but more the lack of an
honest and open explanation from officials. I think the problem
was solved after we heard from Pak Soerjadi," Alan Budikusuma,
the 1992 Olympic gold medalist, said.

The nation's top shuttler, Joko Suprianto, said that the
players were happy to see that Soerjadi wanted to improve
communication between officials and players.

Susi gave credit to Soerjadi, who was willing to gather all
the players to explain the problems.

"It was not a big problem actually but since there was no
openness between officials and players the situation was getting
worse," she said.

About 50 players boycotted the New Year's party at Soerjadi's
house to protest the late payment of their contract money.

Taipei Masters

Indonesia's men's doubles rookie pairing of Chandra Wijaya and
Sigit Budiarto won the men's doubles title at the Chinese Taipei
Open Sunday after beating their seniors Antonius and Denny
Kantono, the 1996 Olympic bronze medalists, 15-11, 15-2.

They also beat their compatriots and Olympic gold medalists
Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky in the semifinals 15-7, 9-15, 15-
12.

"Chandra and Sigit's performance was incredible," coach Atik
Jauhari said.

Chandra and Sigit won the US Open, China Open and Thailand
Open last year.

A new partnership of Sandiarto and Finarsih beat the South
Korean duo Lee Dong-soo and Park Soo-young 15-11, 15-8 in the
mixed doubles final. The Indonesian duo beat top seeds Michael
Soogard and Rikke Olsen of Denmark 4-15, 17-14, 15-10 in the
semifinals.

Unfortunately, the country's young hope Mia Audina failed to
overcome Camilla Martin of Denmark and lost 10-12, 2-11 in the
final.

Mia, who beat Pornsawan Plungwech of Thailand 11-7, 11-0 in
the semifinals, fell victim to her own impatience in trying to
defeat Martin.

Junior Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark surprisingly beat the
Olympic gold medalist Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen, also from Denmark,
15-10, 18-15 to win the men's singles final. (yan)