Taufik eases through at badminton worlds
Taufik eases through at badminton worlds
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia faced little
problems in the opening round of the world badminton
championship, which began in Anaheim, California, on Monday.
Taufik, who is seeded sixth in the tournament, thumped
Peruvian Rodrigo Pacheco 15-7, 15-3 in 38 minutes, according to
www.o5worlds.com.
Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Indonesia's other men's singles contender,
also won in his first match, breezing past Craig Goddard of
Scotland 15-1, 15-1 in 21 minutes on Monday.
Taufik's next opponent is Eric Pang of the Netherlands while
Sony has to tackle 12th seed Niels Christian Kaldau of Denmark.
The matches were scheduled to be played on Wednesday evening
local time.
In the men's doubles matches, Flandy Limpele/Eng Hian took
just 17 minutes to stop Anil Seepaul/Kerwyn Pantin of Trinidad
and Tobago in a 15-2, 15-3 victory.
They play Hwang Ji Man/Han Sang Hoon in the next round. The
Korean pair defeated Khan Bob Malaythong/Raju Rai of the United
States 15-7, 15-8.
Indonesia's other pairs -- Candra Wijaya/Sigit Budiarto and
Luluk Hadiyanto/Alvent Yulianto along with mixed doubles Nova
Widianto/Lilyana Natsir -- had byes and will open play in the
second round.
Indonesia has no representatives in the women's singles or
doubles.
England's best hopes of a world badminton championships medal
has been sunk after Nathan Robertson sprained an ankle in
training, according to Reuters.
Robertson and mixed doubles partner Gail Emms, world ranked
number one and silver medalists at the Athens Olympics, have had
to scratch from their event.
England coach Ian Wright told worldbadminton.net: "This is
very frustrating because we all felt like they were ready to go
one more step than the Olympics this time."
England's squad arrived late in the U.S. after being hit by
the strikes that crippled Heathrow Airport over the weekend. The
mixed doubles pair were due to fly out together last Friday but
had to split up and make various alternative arrangements.
Four of the team members took a total of 40 hours for their
journey to California, driving the last section from Las Vegas.