Taufik is also very tired from the many tournaments he has recently played and that is also one of the main reasons for him not coming. He will definately be back though in Toronto's Exhibition games in the future as the organizer is a good friend of Hariawan Hariawan.
That's too bad.. sorry to hear the news of Taufik not coming to Toronto, as he had planned earlier... ..TH might be afraid of meeting our cooler....oh wait, you're in Calgary, aren't you??...wrong area Wow, even our Hau-ge can sniff cooler all the way to this Canada East sub-forum...
If time lost for training is his reason, it may be explained by jet lag. The total days is 4 but some people get messed up longer than others by traveling. When I go to Asia, it takes me about two days to become close to my normal feeling. Some people I know take over a week. I'm not making up excuses for him but it's a possibility. If it is, he should have planned thought of it earlier and planned for it.
if u believe the OBA media release as words from TH's mouth, sure, u have a point but we don't know the source. Was it from TH's spokeman? PBSI? his coach? I bet u if the price is right, I'm sure he wouldn't mind delaying his quest for #1 ranking (according to the media release) for a few days Media Release December 4, 2008, from the Ontario Badminton Association We regret to inform our Badminton enthusiasts that Taufik Hidayat will be unable to attend the 2008 BITE events due to a conflict in his schedule. Taufik has added a few international tournaments to his schedule, since he is back on target to becoming the world #1 mens singles player. His commitment to the Indonesian National team requires him to stay with the team to train for the Malaysian Open during this time. He has indicated that he will visit Canada once his international tournament schedule subsides. We wish him the best in all his international tournaments and hope to see him play in Ontario some time soon. We have selected Engga Setiawan from Indonesia to replace Taufik Hidayat for the 2008 BITE events. Engga has been the #1 junior national team player and now been selected to the national team. He has several national and international Badminton Open wins to his name. Engga will join Hariawan from Indonesia for all the BITE events.
why don't they just spring the money for Gade or some other big name instead..>_>...i wouldn't mind having another well known, marketable player instead of an unknown jr...
well with such a short notice, it's hard to arrange well-known players. it probably takes 4 or 6 months before any player can be arranged. and the big name players all probably have tournaments to play. but kenneth jonassen is retired! i know he could of came =P but it also counts if u have connections, the organizer of this event probably knew someone from the indo team.
well why not tony gunawan...he's done stuff with the canadian team...or really any of the retired players like chen yu...anders boeson/carl baxter was awesome at the olympic exhibition over here in ottawa a little while ago!
As a consumer I feel extremely ripped off by badminton birds and marketers of this event. They boasted about Taufik coming in every single one of their newsposts, blogs, advertisements, sellers, and theres even a picture of him on the ticket. He was the prime reason everyone bought the tickets- to see Taufik (once in a lifetime). It's one of the reasons I bought 10 tickets myself and for friends because it was friggin Taufik coming to Canada! Every single place everyone was blabbering about how Taufik would come and the tickets were so worth it, now the person I bought the tickets from won't contact me back and I'm at a loss of money, with these worthless tickets that should be 1/4 of the price if its hendrawan and the canadian national team coming. If you're going to boast about something, sign a contract, get concrete arrangements before bsing yourself to a bunch of sales for an event that would've got 1/5th the turnout without taufik.
Let me tell you the truth, Taufik changed his mind as soon as he finds out we have snow and -20degree in Canada, he is completely turned off by the cold.
lol indonesia is pretty much a tropic country since it's near or on the equator, would be surprise taufik is a big wuss for cold
I doubt the is the reason though... But yeah like some people have said... The maketing team of this event ripped us off saying that Taufik was comming when he isn't...:crying: Only reason i bought it was to see Taufik, its a once in a lifetime opportunity... Ruined.:crying:
The OBA very strongly marketed Dr Hidayat. They would not have done that unless they had an agreement with Taufik. They didn't rip us off. Taudick did. That being said, for the price it should still be a good event. I see Andrew Dibeka is coming now. Not sure if he always was, but interested in seeing the top Canadians play. As for the Junior, I don't know him, but odds are he is nasty. I would have loved to see him play.... but what can you do.
just go watch and support canadian badminton and badminton in general. $20(or less) isn't gonna kill ya If u wanna watch taufik, there are plenty videos of him to download
