Badminton: Annual Plans for Superliga After Successful 2013 Event

Jakarta Globe

The Badminton Superliga international team challenge is set to become an annual event, organizers say, after Musica Champions won the men’s event and Jaya Raya snared the women’s crown at last week’s successful 2013 tournament in Surabaya, which concluded on Saturday.

The tournament, which had been held in Jakarta in 2007 and Surabaya in 2011 and this year, will be held each year in cities including Yogyakarta, Bandung and Palembang, badminton administrations said.

Following a strong response from players and spectators, “we will start to plan next year’s event as soon as possible and we want to hold it annually,” tournament director Yoppy Rosimin told the official website of Badminton Superliga on Monday.

“We want to improve the tournament’s quality every year so now, we’re gathering data to pick a new host for next year.”

The event involves ties between sides featuring five games — three singles and two doubles — initially in a round-robin format, and then later in knockout rounds for top performers.

The 2013 edition of Superliga had one of the strongest fields in the competition’s history, with eight women’s teams and 10 men’s teams taking part.

The line-up included five foreign clubs: The Malaysia Tigers and the Unisys Badminton Club of Japan took part in men’s and women’s events, while the Renesas Badminton Club of Japan and the KGC Badminton Club of South Korea sent only a women’s team and the Tonami Badminton Club of Japan sent a men’s team.

Shuttlers welcomed the plan, saying it would boost their motivation while giving them more experience.

“It’s good if the Superliga becomes an annual event. It will make the competition tougher and foreign clubs will be attracted to take part in the event. It will lead to bigger prize money and give us bigger motivations,” said Simon Santoso, who played for Tangkas Specs Jakarta.

On the court, Central Java’s Musica Champions won the men’s title after defeating the Malaysia Tigers 3-2 in Saturday’s final. In the women’s draw, Jakarta’s Jaya Raya downed Unisys Badminton club 3-2, after losing the first two matches.