Susi is Asia's best athlete

Susi is Asia's best athlete

JAKARTA (JP): Badminton queen Susi Susanti is included in the list of Asia's top 10 athletes of 1994 and is entitled to the Kungfu Family Cup, a Chinese sports journalists association announced on Wednesday.

The Cup for the world number one woman shuttler, who gave Indonesia its first gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, was handed over to the Indonesian embassy in Beijing, Antara reported on Wednesday.

Susi carried an almost flawless record throughout 1994, winning all titles in her seven world badminton Grand Prix series appearances. She also spearheaded the national team to take the Uber Cup world women's team championship title for the first time in 19 years.

However, she fell short of expectations, spoiling Indonesia's badminton team superiority in the Asian Games in Hiroshima. During those games she suffered a major upset in her singles quarterfinal match against Japanese Hisako Mizui. Susi also led a team to South Korea for a silver instead of a gold.

Susi, who ended 1994 on top of the world Grand Prix rankings, started this season with two victories in the Japan Open and Korea Open.

Among the other top athletes selected were China's woman swimmer Le Jingyi, who broke the Asian Games 50m freestyle record, female gymnast Mo Huilan, who scooped up four golds in the Asian Games, men's single table tennis king Wang Tao and woman long-distant runner Wang Junxia.

The same honor was also given to track and field athletes from Qatar and South Korea, a soccer player from Saudi Arabia, a Japanese woman tennis player and a South Korean woman skier.

The committee believed the year 1994 was a golden year for Asian sportsmen and women, particularly in swimming, table tennis, track and field and gymnastics. (arf)