Non-Olympic JVC banks on prizes as attraction
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
With the event being deprived of Olympic points, the cash prizes on offer are expected to lure Asia's best players to the JVC Asian Badminton Championships in Jakarta next month.
"With cash prizes of US$150,000, hopefully the participating countries will send their top players," chairman of the organizing committee Sulistiyanto told a media conference here on Thursday.
The tournament will run from Oct. 15 through Oct. 19 at the Indoor Tennis Stadium in Jakarta.
As it is an official event on the International Badminton Federation (IBF) circuit, the annual Asian tournament should become one of the Olympic qualifying events, in which the players' performance results are taken into account to determine their eligibility for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
"But it just so happens that the next Asian championships will follow in April, less than a year after the Jakarta event," Sulistiyanto said.
"It has been decided that it is the April event that will count in the players' Olympic qualifying runs," he said, adding that the venue had not yet been decided.
The 2004 Olympics in Athens next August provide a total of 172 badminton slots -- 86 men and 86 women -- allotted in five events: men's and women's singles/doubles and mixed doubles.
Qualification will be determined by the May 2004 IBF ranking list, which is based on results of a series of tournaments during the period May 2003 to April 2004.
Speaking on behalf of the Asian Badminton Confederation (ABC), Sulistiyanto said that ABC had been contacting the badminton federations of member countries to persuade them to send strong teams.
"I talked with the secretary-general of the Chinese federation recently. He confirmed they would send their players. We have not received the list of names yet but they promised to send their best players," he said.
He said that 19 countries had confirmed their participation, with Afghanistan, Timor Leste and Mongolia expected to follow.
Apart from the probable dampening on competitiveness, the organizers, Sulistiyanto said, were aiming to woo non-badminton fans to the tournament.
"We shall send invitations to schools in Jakarta for students to watch the spectacle free of charge. For the semifinals and finals, we shall invite a popular band to provide entertainment.
"Thereby, we expect not only badminton fans, but also those with other interests, to come," he said.
The next tournament will be the third Indonesia has hosted. The last time was in 2000, when Taufik Hidayat (men's singles), Rexy Mainaky/Tony Gunawan (men's doubles) and Bambang Supriyanto/Minarti Timur (mixed doubles) triumphed in their respective events.
Bambang Supriyanto/Trikus Haryanto won the men's doubles, to be the only victorious Indonesians in Manila the following year, before Sony Dwi Kuncoro captured Indonesia's only title, winning an all-Indonesian final against Taufik Hidayat in Bangkok last year.
2003 Indonesia Open champions Taufik and Sony, who were present at the media conference, will head the home list, which will comprise six men's singles, six women's singles, three pairs of men's doubles, three women's doubles and four mixed doubles players.