Tri aims to end Minarti partnership with gold

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)