PBSI unveils ambitious programs for 2004

PBSI unveils ambitious programs for 2004

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Guangzhou, China

Despite the failure of the national women's team to reach the
semifinals of the 2002 Uber Cup, the Badminton Association of
Indonesia (PBSI) has still set itself the ambitious goal of
bringing back badminton glory to Indonesian soil.

"We must work hard to regain our domination of world
badminton, and there is still ample time to prepare and improve
our shuttlers," PBSI chairman Chairul Tanjung said here on
Monday.

"I have already set up a special team to prepare our shuttlers
for a clean sweep of the badminton events at the 2004 Athens
Olympics.

"Two and a half years of preparation will be more than enough
to reach that goal."

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Indonesia won gold with the men's
doubles team of Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan, and two silvers
from men's singles Hendrawan and the mixed doubles team of
Minarti Timur and Tri Kusheryanto.

Indonesia has won at least one gold medal at every Olympics in
which badminton has been included. At the 1992 Barcelona Games,
Susy Susanti and Alan Budikusuma won gold in the women's and
men's singles.

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Rexy Mainaky and Ricky Subagja
won the men's doubles gold, and Candra and Tony kept the
tradition alive in Australia.

Chairul said he had appointed eight-time All England champion
Rudy Hartono, who also took part in the 1992 Olympics, to lead a
special team to prepare for the 2004 Olympics.

"I myself will chair the team but Rudy will be responsible for
the day-to-day technical matters. PBSI will provide all the
necessary resources.

"Rudy will cooperate with other PBSI officials to synchronize
their work programs. I will review every decision before signing
off on it to prevent any possible clashes," he said.

Indonesia's women badminton players have fallen fast and far
down the world rankings since Susy's retirement in 1998. The
situation was worsened when shuttler Mia Audina Tjiptawan moved
to the Netherlands in 1999, to follow her Dutch husband and
partly because of a feud with PBSI officials.

Indonesia's 3-2 loss to the Netherlands on Saturday, with Mia
contributing two points for her adopted country, meant that for
the first time ever the national women failed to advance to the
Uber Cub semifinals. The national women had already lost 3-2 to
Hong Kong in the Uber Cup opener.

"The girls should have won both matches because we still have
a slight advantage over Hong Kong and the Dutch," Chairul said.

Chairul was particularly disappointed with second singles
player Ellen Angelina, who failed to win crucial points in both
matches.

Meanwhile, Rudy acknowledged that winning five gold medals at
the next Olympics would be extremely difficult given the current
poor play of the women shuttlers.

"Our women badminton players are performing so badly. We do
not have any shuttlers of Susy's caliber, and it will take a long
time to produce another shuttler like her.

"All we can do is groom the youngsters by sending them to as
many tournaments as possible in the next two years," he said.