Rudy ready to stress discipline
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Badminton legend Rudy Hartono is promising change, including an emphasis on discipline and a clearer reward and punishment system for players, as he takes over as head of development affairs for the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI).
"With an extra approach and some coaxing, Rudy Hartono finally agreed to fill the vacant post of head of development affairs," PBSI's chief of foreign affairs G. Sulistiyanto was quoted by Antara as saying on Saturday.
Sulistiyanto was speaking after a PBSI executive board meeting at the national training center in Cipayung, East Jakarta.
Rudy replaces Icuk Sugiarto, who resigned in mid-April following a series of disputes with executive board officials ahead of the Sudirman Cup mixed team championship last month.
In the six weeks since Icuk's departure, the names of Rudy, Tan Joe Hok and Christian Hadinata have emerged as possible replacements.
The three men, all former players, reportedly refused the initial offer to replace Icuk, but PBSI continued to make overtures.
Rudy, who was the head of PBSI organizational and regional development, stated three conditions for taking the job, Sulistiyanto said.
The requests were for a special assistant to handle national training; full authority to maintain the discipline of athletes without intervention from others, including the PBSI chairman, and the authority to implement a reward and punishment system for the players.
"On Friday (June 3), Rudy finally agreed to assume responsibility as head of development affairs because his three requests were fulfilled by PBSI chairman Sutiyoso," Sulistiyanto said.
Rudy said that he would talk with coaches and players to make changes to the national training system.
"Practice sessions must be harder than competition because achievement could only be reached through hard training," he said.
On Saturday, PBSI installed Lius Pongoh as head of the national training to accommodate Rudy's request and Retno Kustiyah as the daily head of organizational and regional development.