Indonesia aims to surpass China in badminton

Hong Kong News.Net
Saturday 24th November, 2007 (IANS)

Jakarta, Nov 24 (Xinhua) The Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) has announced its ambition to end within the next two years China's decade-long domination in the sport.

Indonesia, widely recognised as one of the most powerful badminton countries, is taking a step forward to retake the global lead from China, PBSI chairman Sutiyoso was quoted Saturday by local newspaper Kompas as saying.

'We spend large amount of money on our athletes to compete in European and Asian tournaments with the aim of gaining success,' he said during a visit to north Sulawesi province Friday.

Female shuttlers were given priority with the initial target of reaching the semi-finals in the upcoming Uber Cup women's group tournament and winning the trophy two years later, he said.

Indonesian players have always managed to grab gold medals after badminton was included as medal event in the 2002 Barcelona Olympics. But their chance in the Beijing Olympics was in doubt due to players being out of form in recent years.

The mixed doubles pair of Lilyana Natsir and Nova Widianto have won Indonesia's sole title out of the 12 super series tournaments introduced this year for the competitive pre-Olympic qualifying rounds.

For the first time, none of the local players triumphed in this year's Indonesia Open, also categorised as a super series.

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