The glass is still half-full for nine Indonesian shuttlers wanting to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics, an official for the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) said on Wednesday.
According to Hadi Nasri, who heads the PBSI’s athletic development division, All England mixed double champions Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad, lead the list of the nine players who still in the running for Indonesian’s London team.
Liliyana and Tontowi are currently placed third in the Badminton World Federation’s ranking list.
“Surely we hope that there will be additional players outside the nine players that currently have the biggest chance to compete at the Olympics,” Hadi said as quoted by kompas.com.
Besides the All England champions, the nine players include men’s double players Mohammad Aksan and Bona Septano, and women’s double pair Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari.
The two pairs ranked World No. 7 and No. 9 respectively.
Men’s single players Simon Santoso (12) and 2004 Olympic gold medalist Taufik Hidayat (13) also have a chance to qualify by the May 3 deadline.
Meanwhile, women shuttlers Adriyanti Firdasari and Maria Febe Kusumastuti must compete each other for one spot to represent Indonesia in the women’s singles.
The two currently rank in the 30s on BWF’s rankings.
“Our athletes still have to compete in the Asia Championship in China as well as the India Super Series to ensure that they indeed get tickets to London,” said Hadi.
Hadi added that PBSI had also prepared sparring partners, nutritionists, physicians and psychologists to prepare both physical and mental aspects of the Indonesian players ahead of London.
