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)