TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Badminton Committee of Indonesia (PP PBSI) grants a one-billion-rupiah (US$ 82.250) plus taxes reward to badminton players, Muhammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan. As promised, PB PBSI grants the said amount of money to the most valuable player.
In the Milo School Badminton Competition event held in Jakarta yesterday, the Chairman of PB PBSI Gita Wirjawan said the reward is good for the athlete's morale. He said that next year, the reward will continue to be presented.
According to the Chief of National Training (Pelatnas) Ricky Soebagdja, this reward will hopefully give other athletes a boost in spirit to perform better. "We want them to try harder," he said.
"It is an honor to be rewarded as the MVP of 2013," said Hendra. "I think we were chosen because our performance this year is excellent."
Ahsan said he was surprised to win the award. "We know deep inside that we were nominated as MVP along with Tontowi (Ahmad) and Lilyana (Natsir)," he said. "We are very thankful. This is our hard work and we are thankful that our hard work is noticed by the upper officials."
Hendra and Ahsan are Badminton World Federation (BWF) 2013 champions. They also won a number of tournaments such as BWF Superseries Finals 2013 in Malaysia, Denmark Open, Indonesia Open and Malaysia Open.
GADI MAKITAN