Team managers deplore absence of strong challenge at Milo Open
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
With many of the participating countries failing to send their top badminton players, this year's version of the Milo Junior Indonesia Open will be less competitive, the Indonesian team manager said here on Tuesday.
"I have to praise the organizers for luring foreign countries to the event. But I deplore the fact that they have come here with their second-string players," Sigit Pamungkas told The Jakarta Post while watching his players go through their paces inside the Sudirman Sports Hall.
Sigit put it down to the "bad timing" of the event, which was scheduled close to a bigger tournament. Only a week after the Milo Open ends on Saturday, the Asian Junior Championship in Kuala Lumpur will kick off.
"The countries have not sent their best players here. They have opted instead for those players to focus on their training for the Kuala Lumpur meet," he said.
The Asian Junior Championship will run from July 14 to July 22.
"I hope that in the future, the Milo organizers will take into account the next event on the match calendar when arranging the event," he said.
The Milo Junior Indonesia Open, with 320 players from seven countries, including Indonesia, began on Tuesday. Beside those athletes from local clubs, Indonesia is represented by its top 16 juniors from the national badminton training center in Cipayung, East Jakarta.
The organizers had earlier announced that seven foreign countries would be taking part in the event, but the sole shuttler from Belgium withdrew because of illness.
With a view to sending 10 boys and 10 girls to the championship in Kuala Lumpur, the Indonesian team is using the Milo Open as a qualifying event to see who will make the trip to Malaysia.
"This becomes urgent particularly on the boys' side because we only have one athlete in the training center," Sigit said, referring to Holvy De Pauw, the winner of the 2001 Indonesia Open in Salatiga and the top seed here.
Meanwhile, Rosman bin Abdul Razak, the Malaysian team manager, who was interviewed separately by the Post, said his eight athletes, all boys, were the best the country had to offer.
"They are the best juniors we have in our training camp," he said. Despite this, the team has set a modest goal of making it through to the semifinals.
"Given the opposition from the Indonesian players, whom I think have better skills, we will push our players to make the semifinals. If they can go farther, I would say it is more than enough," Rosman, a former Malaysian national player, said.
Asked why his squad did not include any girls' players, Rosman said the Badminton Association of Malaysia was grooming the squad for the Kuala Lumpur meet.
Though the tournament may be less competitive as a whole, it can still help Indonesia separate its top junior players from the pretenders.
In Tuesday's opening matches, which were played at the Sudirman and Suryanaga sports halls, Holvy rolled over Dani Rusnindar of Mutiara Bandung 15-2, 15-1 in the boys' field.
In the girls' event, top seed Dewi Tira Arisandi was far too strong for Dwi Hariyanti of Suryanaga Surabaya, blanking her outclassed opponent 11-0, 11-0.
The finals on Saturday will take place in the Sudirman Sports Hall.