RI's Taufik seeded third in World Badminton C'ships

RI's Taufik seeded third in World Badminton C'ships

JAKARTA (JP): Ahead of the World Badminton Championships, none
of the Indonesian shuttlers have been listed as the top seeds at
the biennial event to take place at the San Pablo Stadium in
Seville, Spain from June 3 to June 10.

Indonesia's top men's singles shuttler Taufik Hidayat is
listed as third seed despite his declining performance lately.

Malaysian Roslin Hashim, winner of Swiss Open and Japan Open,
surprisingly tops the men's singles seeding, pushing aside Dane
Peter Gade Christensen.

Indonesian Marlev Mainaky is seeded seventh while the Sydney
Olympics silver medalist Hendrawan is seeded 14th.

Indonesia's domination of men's doubles is not reflected in
the seeding list with Danes Jens Eriksen and Jesper Larsen being
named the top seeds, followed by compatriots Michael Sogaard and
Jim Laugesen.

Indonesia's world number two combination of Flandy Limpele and
Eng Hian are only seeded third. All England champions Tony
Gunawan and Halim Heryanto are seeded fifth.

Eighth seeds and Japan Open winners Candra Wijaya and Sigit
Budiarto are looking forward to winning their second title after
Glasgow in 1997 to mark their reunification.

Bambang Suprianto and Minarti Timur will do their best in the
mixed doubles and are seeded fourth, with second line shuttlers
Nova Widianto and Vita Marissa seeded fifth. Meanwhile, Tri
Kusheryanto and Indarti Issoliana are seeded 10th.

The top seeds in the event are Michael Sogaard and Rikke Olsen
from Denmark.

Indonesia failed to get any of its shuttlers in the women's
singles and doubles seed lists.

Defending champion Camilla Martin of Denmark still tops the
singles rankings shadowed by Chinese Zhou Mi and Gong Ruina,
while Chinese pairing of Huang Nanyan and Yang Wei top the
doubles rankings.

The draw for the World Championships will be conducted on
Friday. (nvn)