PBSI announces 2004 Olympics' nominees
PBSI announces 2004 Olympics' nominees
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) announced on Monday
the lineup of players for the 2004 Olympics, with chairman
Chairul Tanjung cautioning about the tough road to Athens.
Given the current International Badminton Federation (IBF)
rankings, Chairul said the players would have a challenging task
in the next qualifying tournaments.
"It will be a difficult task for them. They need great
motivation to qualify, and we, the (PBSI) officials, will need to
monitor the players' performance during their practice at the
training center and international performance," Chairul said on
the sidelines of the opening of PBSI's new office at Wisma Karsa
building in Central Jakarta on Monday.
The badminton competition at the Athens Olympics permits a
country to enter up to three players who rank in the top 16.
If the country does not have a player in the top 16, it can
have a maximum of two players who rank in the top 32, or a
maximum of one player who ranks in the top 64.
In the men's singles, Taufik Hidayat and Sony Dwi Kuncoro are
the only Indonesian players in the top 10, with Taufik in sixth
and Sony in ninth place.
The women's singles rankings, which are dominated by Chinese
duo Wang Chen and Zhang Ning in first and second place, have no
Indonesian players, leaving Yuli Marfuah languishing at 63.
Likewise in the women's doubles, 21 is the highest position
Indonesians have been able to achieve through Jo Novita and Lita
Nurlita.
The men's doubles still have Indonesian hopefuls Candra Wijaya
and Sigit Budiarto in contention, who are ranked 10th, while the
mixed doubles have better prospects with three Indonesian pairs
in the top 16.
Among the Indonesian nominees is singles player Marleve
Mainaky, who will make a return to the training center.
Rudi Hartono, who is in charge of preparing the Indonesian
Olympics team, said that Marleve, who is currently ranked 20, had
been included in the shortlist with the consideration that he
still had a chance to improve his ranking.
PBSI has assigned a number of trainers to prepare the Olympic
team. They are Joko Supriyanto, Agus Dwi Santoso, Ivanna Lie,
Verawati Fajrin, Heri Imam Pierngadi, Paulus Firman and Richard
Mainaky.
Rudi said the team line-up would be announced in August, or
six months before the deadline for qualifying which closes in
May.
List of nominees: (Men's singles) Taufik Hidayat, Sony Dwi
Kuncoro, Marleve Mainaky, Budi Santoso, Ronny Agustinus, (women's
singles) Yuli Marfuah, Dian Novita Sari, Maria Kristin, (men's
doubles) Candra Wijaya, Sigit Budiarto, Lulu Hadiyanto, Alvent
Julianto, Halim Heriyanto, (women's doubles) Jo Novita, Lita
Nurlita, Eny Erlangga, Lilyana Natsir, (mixed doubles) Nova
Widiyanto/Vita Marissa, Trikus Heriyanto/Emma Ermawati, Anggun
Nugroho/Enny Widiowati.