PETALING JAYA: Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat will be making a last-ditch bid to keep alive his Olympic Games dream by doing well in the Asian Badminton Championships (ABC). The ABC is the last chance for Asian players to earn qualifying points to make the top 16 in the world rankings and earn an automatic place in the Athens Olympic badminton competition from Aug 14-21. Taufik’s presence here will also provide his rivals a sneak preview of his form ahead of the Thomas Cup Finals. Taufik, ranked No. 23 in the world and Sony Dwi Kuncoro, ranked 13th in the world, are two of the Indonesia’s Thomas Cup players who will be in action in the ABC, which will begin tomorrow at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium (KLBA). The qualifying tournament starts today. Sony is assured of a place in the Olympics badminton competition. The Thomas Cup Finals will be staged in Jakarta from May 7-16 and Indonesia will be out to create history by winning the Cup for a record sixth consecutive time. Besides Taufik and Sony, the All Indonesia Badminton Association (PBSI) have named Simon Santoso and Wiempie Mahardi as their singles players for the prestigious team event. Their doubles players are Alven Yulianto-Luluk Hadiyanto, Flandi Limpele-Eng Hian and Candra Wijaya-Trikus Hariyanto. Except for Alven-Luluk, all the others are taking part in the ABC. The Indons will be banking on Taufik and Sony to win at least a point in the singles as they can then fall back on their strong doubles combinations to win the other ties. In the ABC, the 23-year-old Taufik will most probably meet Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei in the third round. Like Indonesia, the other top badminton countries have also finalised their squad for the Thomas Cup Finals. Some of these players will be in action at the ABC. China have named a strong line-up in the men’s singles. They are Lin Dan, Chen Hong, Bao Chunlai, Xia Xuanze and Chen Hong. Only Chen Hong will feature in the ABC and he may meet Malaysia’s Mohd Roslin Hashim in the quarter-finals. South Korea’s doubles chief coach Park Joo-bong said that the Korean squad would be represented by the same players who took part in the Asian Zone qualifier in Kuala Lumpur in February. And all of them will compete in the ABC as part of their preparation for the Thomas Cup Finals. Thestar
Question is: With this result, does he make the olympics? Question is: With this result, does he make the olympics? By the way, how come he put his knee guard so low????
He would have made the Olympics even without entering this tournament. But perhaps he wants a good seeding (which is also beneficial to other top players by the way) to avoid some big guns at the beginning. But I think he is still out of the top 16 even after winning the ABC, so he won't be seeded.
the knee guard? i suspect he has the same problem as me, injury to patella tendon. caused by too much jumping etc, too much pressure on the tendon. the bandage is just to prevent further damage.
Yes, I just checked, there will be only 8 seeds. Makes things a little bit more interesting, doesn't it?
