Student badminton tournaments launched
Student badminton tournaments launched
Imanuddin
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Recognizing the tight international competition and the
availability of Indonesian world class shuttlers, the Badminton
Association of Indonesia (PBSI) in cooperation with the Ministry
of National Education will launch a regular competition for
elementary, junior and senior high school students starting in
January.
In the first phase, the competition will be held in regencies
and mayoralties in six Java provinces -- Jakarta, Banten, West
Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java -- and two non-Java
provinces -- North Sumatra and South Sulawesi.
"Hopefully, the regular competitions will be held in all the
country's regencies and mayoralties by 2004," PBSI chairman
Chairul Tanjung told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar to
introduce the launching of the competition at the Wisma Karsa
Pemuda building in Central Jakarta on Friday.
Tanjung said the regular competition for the school students
was meant not only as a medium for scouting new talent, but also
as a forum to disseminate badminton development to regions
outside Java.
"Currently, most of the country's top players have always come
from the same clubs or provinces in Java. Through this program,
we hope we can get promising players from eastern and western
Indonesia's regions," he said.
Earlier, Director-general for Sports at the ministry of
national education Toho Chalik Mutohir said that in an attempt to
sustain the country's world class badminton standing, there
should be immediate talent-scouting and supervision of
prospective shuttlers from an early age.
"If it (the talent-scouting and supervision of prospective
players) is not begun early, there will be a limited population
of Indonesian world class badminton players," Mutohir said while
addressing the opening of the seminar.
"It's now difficult to find a female badminton player of the
same caliber of Ibu Minarni," he said, referring to Minarni
Sudaryanto, one of the country's best players, who won the 1968
All-England Badminton championship's women's doubles along with
Retno Kustiyah.
While the men's team has been dominating in the last five
Thomas Cup, the world badminton tournament for men; the country's
women's team has not won the Uber Cup female badminton tournament
since 1996.
Mutohir, however, suggested that the talent-scouting and
supervision for prospective players should not be based on rigid
badminton regulations and standards of measurement.
"In an effort to attract the interest of young children to
play badminton, there must be a 'modified badminton' introduced
to them," he said.
"PBSI, as the organizer of the competition for the school
students, should not rigidly require the adult-sized racket and
actual size of courts be used in the (elementary school)
students' competition," he explained, while citing that it would
be difficult for an eight-year old child to play with an adult-
sized racket.