PBSI Re-evaluates Sending Athletes to International Tournaments
25 August 2016 17:30 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of Athlete Affairs in the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) Rexy Mainaky says that he will evaluate the trend of sending athletes to an international tournament after looking at the team's performance in the Olympics.
Men's double pair who was expected to catch gold medal, Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan, could not go to the quarterfinal as they have failed at the elimination round. Meanwhile, women's double pair who was the champion at the Asian Games 2014, Greysia Polii/Nitya Krishinda Maheswari, had failed to secure the quarterfinal. The gold medal had finally secured by mixed double pair Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir.
"This is unexpected. We had focused on securing world ranking before the Olympics," said Rexy Thursday, August 25, 2016.
He argued that the number of competitions that the athletes have to follow has caused them under-performing.
“Hendra/Ahsan and Greysia/Nitya still played in Australian Open," said Rexy. “If they had not played, they would have more time to prepare."
Rexy said that world ranking has nothing to do with the Olympics. He referred to the ranking issued by the World Badminton Federation.
GADI MAKITAN
