Pelita Jaya pulls out of badminton tournament

JAKARTA (JP): Defending champion Pelita Jaya has pulled out of the Fourth Ardath Cup national junior badminton championships, citing "unfair treatment" by the organizing committee.

The last minute withdrawal of the leading Jakarta-based badminton club came as a great surprise when it was announced yesterday shortly after the opening ceremony of the annual event at the Yuwana Mandala sports hall in Denpasar, Bali.

The sudden, unexpected withdrawal was announced by the club's manager, Icuk Sugiarto, Antara reported.

Icuk, the 1983 world champion, and one of the world's top players during his heyday in the 1980s, said he was unhappy with the way the organizing committee treated his club.

"We are the winner of the trophy for the last two years, but the organizers took us lightly by placing Pelita Jaya as the fourth seed. Isn't that ridiculous? Being the title holder we should have been put at the top of the seeding list," Icuk said.

He said no defending champion was ever seeded fourth in any championship competition anywhere in the world.

Calling the whole process a fiasco, Icuk said he smelled something fishy in the way the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) has organized the tournament.

"I believe some PBSI officials are behind the sham. They deliberately ganged up against Pelita Jaya as they have personal vested interests," he said.

The Ardath Cup is a team-event tournament for budding players who play under the banner of their respective clubs throughout the country. Having been held for the past 12 years, the event has produced a lot of internationally acclaimed shuttlers, such as current world number one Ardy Wiranata, Olympic champion Alan Budi Kusuma and the current world badminton "queen" Susi Susanti to mention a few. (bas)