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Badminton: House Says It Will Offer Olympic Support
Ami Afriatni | February 08, 2012

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Despite the country’s struggles to make an impact at the highest level, badminton is still seen as Indonesia’s best hope for a gold medal at this year’s Olympics.

With that in mind, lawmakers in House of Representatives Commission X, which oversees sports affairs, pledged ample funding for the badminton team’s preparations ahead of the Games.

“Badminton should get special attention during the preparations, compared to other sports. If necessary, we can disburse lots of money because what is important to us is to regain Indonesia’s glory in badminton,” Zulfadli, a Golkar Party legislator, said on Wednesday at a hearing with the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs.

Hadi Nasri, an Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) official, said he welcomed the support, adding, “we look forward to that being realized.”

It was agreed at the hearing that every effort must be made to maintain the country’s “golden tradition.” Indonesia has won at least one gold medal in badminton at every Olympics since the sport’s introduction in 1992.

Hadi said the PBSI would push its shuttlers to compete in as many tournaments as possible until the qualifying period ends in May. The top 16 singles shuttlers and top eight doubles pairs in the May 3 Badminton World Federation ranking qualify for the Olympics.

The PBSI reportedly has proposed a Rp 10 billion ($1.1 million) budget for its Olympic preparations. Youth and Sports Ministry secretary Djoko Pekik said on Monday that only Rp 200 billion was available for sports development this year, including the Olympics and the Asian Beach Games.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Thomas Cup and Uber Cup teams said they were pleased with their schedule for their qualifying tournament, which starts on Monday in Macau.

The women open against Sri Lanka before facing Kazakhstan and closing with Thailand. The men start with Macau before taking on Singapore and India.

“The schedule is in our favor so we can adapt to the court and the opponents. We won’t play Thailand early and that’s great,” women’s singles shuttler Adriyanti Firdasari said at the national training camp in Cipayung, East Jakarta, on Wednesday.

The teams leave for Macau on Thursday to give them more time to adjust to the local conditions.