In the motivational workshop held by Orange County Badminton Club (OCBC) and United States Badminton Development Foundation (USBDF) on the past Satuday (January 22, 2005), a news was announced, what might be a bad news for Indonesians but should be great to know for American badminton players and fans. Halim Haryanto is taking an offer as the coaching staff of USBDF and moving to United States. Halim Haryanto, the previous All England Open and World Champions (partnered with Tony Gunawan, 2001) resigned from PBSI last October after the US Open and has been helping the family business since then. There is no further information regarding if he will reform the partnership with Tony Gunawan (currently representing USA and partnering with Howard Bach in Men's Double). Due to the eligibility regulated by IBF, Halim would not be able to play for another country for three years. But his presence here in Southern California would definitely have positive impacts to the badminton activities in the United States.
i don't think they're reforming the partnership...since tony and howard are trying to qualify for world championships. unless they end up as a scratch pairing in a team event like surdirman cup.
According to what i know that a player like him who resigned from PBSI they have to be absent from Int'l tournaments for at least 1 year from the last Int'l tournament they played in. So for Halim, the very last tournament he played in was US Open 2004; so in order not to make any scene or create protests from other countries, he is better to sit still and wait until the next US Open 2005.
