Ri's beach volleyballers vow to boost ranking

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian men's beach volleyball team of Muchammad Nurmufid and Markoji are aiming to improve their world ranking in the ninth leg of the World Beach Volleyball Grand Prix Championships to be held here from Friday until Sunday.

"We hope to move up at least six places to 17th spot in the world rankings," Nurmufid told a press conference yesterday.

The duo, who competed at the Atlanta Centennial Olympics in July, have had only 10 days to prepare for the competition after playing in the 14th National Games. But they said with guarded optimism that they would meet their target.

"We've been playing in many international tournaments so we don't have a problem with only 10 days practice," Nurmufid said.

"All the teams taking part here stand an equal chance of winning," Markoji added.

The tournament's qualifying round started here yesterday. Only eight teams from the qualifying round will enter the main draw tomorrow, joining 24 other pairs who automatically qualified on their world rankings.

Another Indonesian team, ranked 24 in the world, of Irilkhum Sofana and Agus Salim has also qualified automatically.

Olympic silver medalists Mike Dodd and Michael Whitmarsh of the United States and bronze medalists Mark Heese and John Child of Canada are favored to win the US$150,000 tournament, to be played on the Senayan clay tennis courts which have been modified into a sand court.

"I think staging a tournament in an artificial venue is better because the wind is not as strong as on the beach," Nurmufid said.

Christopher St John "Sinjin" Smith, dubbed King of the Beach, hailed Indonesia as a smart innovator in the development of beach volleyball by staging the event on a tennis court. He said that beach-less countries could follow in Indonesia's footsteps.

Rita Subowo, chairperson of the organizing committee, said the Indonesian Volleyball Association had decided to build an artificial venue instead of using Ancol beach because Ancol beach did not meet the standards set by the world volleyball body (FIVB).

Four of five Indonesian teams will race for berths in the main draw tomorrow. Supri/Alfinus will play Japan's Matsunaga/Watanabe; Leonard/Janwatin will meet Surman/Durrant of Australia; Iwan/Anjas will take on Anfiloff/Richardson of Australia; and Supriadi/Arief will play Frisby-Smith/Thompson of Australia.

Rita, who is also the executive director of the Indonesian volleyball body, expects that at least one of the other national pairs will qualify. (yan)