Indonesian Olympians to train PH badminton bets

TWO Indonesian Olympic shuttlers are set to arrive on Aug. 8 to help train the national badminton team which has been undergoing a massive buildup for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Olympic silver medalist Tri Kusharjanto and fourth placer Vita Marissa will preside over a training camp with the PH shuttlers, who are expected to absorb vital technics from standouts of one of the world’s badminton powerhouses.

Philippine Badminton Association secretary general Rep. Albee Benitez said part of the training will have the visitors playing  matches with the PH doubles teams in the seniors and juniors squads.

“We’ll bring along world class players over to chart the progress of our players, but we’ll also be focusing on sending players in major tournaments abroad to make sure they gain world ranking points,” said Benitez.

Kusharjanto, 38, played in tandem with Minarti Timur in the 2000 Sydney Games. They lost in the gold medal match to  Gao Ling and Zhang Jun of China.

Timur now serves as assistant coach to Indonesian coach Rexy Mainaky, who is himself an Olympic and World Championships gold winner.

Marissa, 31, played mixed doubles with Nova Widianto in the 2004 Athens Olympics but wound up fourth place after the Chinese shuttlers fashioned out a 1-2-3 finish.

The Philippines is looking at strenthening its doubles roster which could be a ticket for the local shuttlers to the bigtime tourneys like the Super Series, World Championships and eventually the Olympics.