JAKARTA, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) — The Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) has announced the ambition to end China's decade-long domination in the sport for the next two years. Indonesia, widely recognized as one of the most powerful badminton countries, is taking a staged process to retake China's global lead, PBSI chairman Sutiyoso was quoted Saturday by major national newspaper Kompas.
"We spend big for our athletes to compete in European and Asian tournaments with the aim to gain success," he said during a visit to North Sulawsi province Friday.
Female shuttlers were given priority with the initial target upreaching the semifinals in the upcoming Uber Cup women's group tournament and winning the trophy two years later, he said.
Indonesian players have always managed to grab gold medals since badminton was included as medal event in the 2002 Barcelona Olympic. But their chance for the Beijing Olympic is in doubt due to a major decline in recent years.
Only mixed doubles Lilyana Natsir and Nova Widianto have won Indonesia's sole title out of 12 super series tournaments introduced this year for the competitive pre-Olympic qualifying rounds.
In this year's Indonesia Open, also categorized as a super series, none of local players triumphed for the first time ever in home tournaments.
