Birmingham: After traveling for about 20 hours, the Indonesian badminton team has finally landed in Birmingham, England, Saturday (March, 13, 2021) afternoon, UK time.
Head of Development and Achievement of the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI), Rionny Mainaky, said that Indonesian players were in good health and ready to achieve good results in Birmingham.
“We have arrived safely in Birmingham and are now at the hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel, we immediately took the PCR test swab. Hopefully, all the results will come back negative,” said Mainaky.
“Now we are waiting for the results, we were told it’ll take about 12 hours. We must remain in the room until the results come out. We are going to get our training schedule on Monday,” added Mainaky.
In this year’s All England, the Indonesian team also featured a long-awaited, most-anticipated comeback of World No. 1 men’s pair, Marcus Gideon/Kevin Sukamuljo.
The pair last played at 2020 All England final, where they lost to the Japanese pair of Yuta Watanabe/Hiroyuki Endo 18-21, 21-12, 19-21.
“Yes, I just miss the competition, because I haven’t played in a match for a long time. Kevin and I are preparing well for the All England, and Kevin has recovered 100 percent,” said Gideon to PBSI.
“Our opponents have improved a lot in the last one-year period, but whatever it is we have to be ready,” said Sukamuljo.
“The atmosphere of the match this year would be completely different, as we are competing without spectators. Hopefully, it doesn’t affect our performance on the court,” added Sukamuljo.
Gideon/Sukamuljo will open against Jones Ralfy Jansen/Peter Kaesbauer of Germany in the first round and could face No. 3 seeds Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda of Japan in the semi-finals.
