Team managers deplore absence of strong challenge at Milo Open
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.