PBSI targets men's doubles title at World Championships

JAKARTA (JP): The Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) does not expect too much from the Sudirman Cup mixed team event championship in May, but is upbeat about retaining at least the men's doubles title at the subsequent World Championships.

Director of the national training center, Christian Hadinata, admitted on Friday that Indonesia did not hold enough trump cards to regain the Sudirman Cup.

"Of the five rubbers to be played, we reckon our biggest chances to score come in the men's singles and doubles matches only," he said.

Introduced in 1989, the tournament applies a best-of-five- match format, with each team featuring its men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles players.

Indonesia won the initial tournament, which was named after the PBSI's first chairman, but has never triumphed since then. It fell at the last hurdle at the hands of South Korea in Glasgow, Scotland in 1997,

The Sudirman Cup is followed by the World Championships. Both are biennial events.

Christian tipped Denmark as the strongest candidate to win the Cup instead of China and defending champion South Korea.

"Denmark has players of about the same quality in the five disciplines, while China will rely heavily on its women's team. South Korea is a bit weaker than China currently," he said.

Christian said the retirement of former world women's singles number one Susi Susanti would weaken the team's performance in the event.

"Without Susi, we lose some of our confidence, not to mention the fact that her successor Mia Audina has yet to live up to our expectations," he said.

Mia, the toast of Indonesia's Uber Cup triumphs in 1994 and 1996, suffered a major setback last season. She managed only to win the title at the Indonesia Open here last November, and crashed out in the early rounds at the Asian Games and the Copenhagen Masters recently.

Upbeat

When it comes to the World Championships, Christian was optimistic that Indonesia could land titles other than the men's doubles crown it will defend in Glasgow.

"We are setting our sights on retaining the men's doubles title, but our chances look great as well in the men's singles and mixed doubles," Christian said.

Debutants Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto salvaged Indonesia's pride in 1997 by beating the Malaysian pair of Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock for the men's doubles crown. The young pairing followed in the footsteps of their seniors, Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky, who won the title in 1995.

Christian said it was difficult for him to predict which Indonesian pair would maintain the country's supremacy in the men's doubles competition.

"We just expect many of our men's doubles partnerships to qualify for the championships," he said.

Candra will defend his title with new partner Tony Gunawan after Sigit was banned one year for testing positive in a drug case last August.

In the men's singles, Hendrawan is likely the best hope to win the title.

Christian said now that the country's badminton top flight concentrates on the two major events, they must be exempted from other international duties, including the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in August.

"The likes of Hendrawan, Ricky and Rexy, even Candra and Tony, must not compete in the SEA Games, scheduled in August, any more. It's no longer a competition that tests their caliber," Christian said.

"I don't mean to denigrate the SEA Games but we must look ahead to the next and bigger event: the 2000 Olympics," he said. (yan)