Young shuttlers vow to join Thomas Cup team

JAKARTA (JP): The national men's team's victory of bringing home the Thomas Cup four consecutive times and 12 times in history of the coveted cup has motivated young shuttlers to follow in their seniors' steps.

Ronny Agustinus said on Monday that he wanted to join the Thomas Cup team in the upcoming two years.

"I have realized that I have yet to reach my best achievement in international tournaments. But I hope to improve my physical condition and mentality in the future to follow in my seniors' steps," said Ronny, who will be 22 on Oct. 7.

Ronny said he always had psychological problems in international tournaments, especially when competing in major events and facing tough opponents.

"I have discussed how to overcome my psychological barrier with coach Agus Dwi Santoso. I also have problems in improving my concentration on the court. But I prefer to talk to my coach instead of psychologists," said Ronny, a member of the 1999 Southeast Asian Games in Brunei Darussalam.

Teammate Johan Hadikusuma shared the same idea of joining the next Thomas Cup team.

"I don't have any experience in competing in a team event but in the next two years I must be able to replace the seniors on the Thomas Cup team," said Johan, who is a younger brother to the 1992 Olympic Games gold medalist Alan Budikusuma.

Both Ronny and Johan said the presence of physical trainer Ridwan Soemardjo helped them to increase their fitness.

"But I hope the trainer and the coach can discuss about the training program more intensively to reach the maximum performance in the future," Ronny said.

"Should the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) want to have a physical trainer, they must do it continuously, not only for a short term period as they did with the Thomas Cup team," said Johan, who claimed that he was no longer walking in Alan's shadow.

Ridwan and Tahir Djide, who was in charge for doubles' physical condition, only had about two months to improve athletes' physical fitness.

If the singles expressed their high motivation, the doubles specialist, Ade Lukas, partnering with Santoso Sugihardjo, seemed pessimistic on his chance to join the next team.

"The competition in the doubles sector is much tougher compared to the singles. We still have many good young doubles, including Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan; Flandy Limpele and Eng Hian; and Halim Heryanto and Sigit Budiarto. It's really hard for us to compete against them. But we are trying," he said.

All players said they wanted to achieve better in the upcoming four tournaments; the Indonesia Open, Malaysia Open, Thailand Open and Singapore Open.

"I want to win one of the four tournaments titles," said Johan, while Ronny said he wanted to upset the seeds at the event.

Five countries -- Denmark, Sweden, England, the Netherlands and Wales -- have confirmed to be competing in the Indonesia Open at the Senayan Indoor Stadium from July 19 to July 23. (yan)