Silvi battles against odds at Milo junior meet

Silvi battles against odds at Milo junior meet

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Reigning champion Silvi Antarini has dealt the ongoing Milo
Junior Indonesia Open badminton championships a blow with her
mockery of both the seeding calculation and the country's
badminton-governing body, PBSI, in her defeat of pretournament
favorite Dewi Tira Arisandi here.

The former national junior was the 2001 champion but she has
fallen outside the top eight, which is dominated by the current
national squad, following her lack of competitive activity for
almost four months ahead of the event.

Silvi was removed from the national lineup after only one year
in the training camp for disciplinary reasons.

But the 18-year-old, who is only rated ninth out of 16 at the
tournament, proved the calculation was wrong and signaled she
still deserved a place in the national squad, with her 11-0, 11-1
win over Dewi at the Sudirman Sports Hall.

As the score shows, Silvi totally dominated the match, winning
rallies with her sharp drives and cutting drop shots, which
caused her opponent to lose all idea of how to improve her play.

"I was at a loss, my power deserted me," Dewi said, her eyes
downcast dejectedly.

Silvi's victory also revealed her domination over her former
training mate in their head-to-head matches. In their 18 meetings
Silvi has lost only once, in Surabaya in 1998, when both were at
the outset of their badminton careers.

However, Silvi did not appear to heed the ratings. Neither was
she preoccupied about her hopes in the competition after her 2001
triumph.

"I had no intention of defending the title. The 2001
championship was a year behind. What I have in mind is that I
just want to play as well as possible," she told The Jakarta Post
after the match, her father IGM Sumandra beside her.

Starting to play badminton when seven years of age, Silvi
began to show her prowess at local competitions in Jakarta from
early 1993 onward. She was recruited to the national training
camp in Cipayung, East Jakarta in March 2001 and promptly paid
off the move, winning a bronze medal at the Asian Junior
Championships in Taiwan the same year, while her teammates fell
at the wayside.

Another unforgettable moment she would like to savor was her
victory at the Asian Students Championships in the Philippines
early this year.

But days after her Philippines triumph, she was booted out of
the training camp, in a way she considered rather unfair.

It happened when Silvi was persuaded to enter a local
competition in West Sumatra, the provincial origin of her mother,
and was deemed to have violated the rules as she went without
having asked the permission of the training camp's officials.

While saying she had asked someone to seek permission on her
behalf, she admitted her mistake in not doing it personally. But
she regretted the fact that PBSI officials did not give her a
chance to explain herself.