Tri aims to end Minarti partnership with gold

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian mixed doubles player Tri Kusharjanto wants to end his partnership with Minarti Timur with the experience of bringing home a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Sydney next week.

"After the Olympics, Meme (Minarti's nickname) will retire while I will continue playing. I want to give her a good memory of our final performance at the Olympics. We failed to win a gold in the 1996 Olympics, losing to Kim Dong-moon and Gil Yoong-ah of South Korea in the quarterfinals," he said after a training session at the Indonesian Badminton Center in Cipayung, East Jakarta, on Saturday.

Minarti will retire after the Games due to her age of 32 years. Tri will still continue to play but is unsure of his future partner.

"We are both in good condition, physically and mentally. We have increasing motivation. For me, personally, I hope I can give my son a good present," said Tri, referring to his six-month old son.

Tri and Meme are top seeds in the Olympics mixed doubles. They have a bye in the first round but will face a tough challenge in the second round as South Koreans Ha Tae-kwon and Chung Jae-hee are likely to have no trouble eliminating Vladislav Druschenko and Victoria Evtoushenko of Ukraine.

Should the Indonesians survive this challenge, they are likely to meet Danish Jens Erikssen and Mette Schjoldager in the quarterfinals.

If they win, they will possibly meet the winner of the match between Liu Yong and Ge Fei of China and Simon Archer and Joanne Goode of England in the semifinals. And when Tri and Meme reach the final, they are likely to challenge Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min of South Korea.

"We were surprised to discover that we're the top seeds as we only expected to be the second seeds. But it doesn't really matter as we are motivated further by this fact," Tri said.

"However, we must be aware of our opponents in the early rounds as they all are good."

With the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) and the National Sports Council (KONI) focusing their attention on two potential medal winners in the men's singles and doubles, Tri feels relaxed with his preparation.

"We don't have any burdens. We only want to prove that we can achieve higher than expected. The thought of winning gold is a real boost to our motivation."

In terms of his own preparation, Tri said his parents' presence here was helping him concentrate on the training sessions.

"After returning home from the Malaysian Open, where we were runners up, my parents came to take care of my son so I could fully concentrate on my training program.

"I won't have any anxiety about leaving my family when I go to Sydney as I have my parents to rely on during the Games."

PBSI training director Christian Hadinata said Tri and Meme are expected to meet Kim and Ra in the final.

"It's good that they are not in the same group as the Koreans. Hopefully they can overcome their contenders in the early rounds." (yan)