The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- BWF sign four-year deal with IMG Media
- Danish manager believes shuttlers will step up without two old stars
- Rexy calls the shots as Indonesian badminton supremo
| BWF sign four-year deal with IMG Media Posted: 16 May 2013 06:47 PM PDT THE Badminton World Federation (BWF) received a tremendous boost when they signed a four-year contract with IMG Media. The new media group will have the rights over all BWF major events, world Superseries and Grand Prix Gold events and will play a crucial role in promoting the sport. The BWF events are currently televised in more than 160 countries, with more than 5,000 hours of annual coverage. On top of that, BWF's online channel boasts of 22 million views. The new agreement yesterday will further boost the statistics. Outgoing BWF president Dr Kang Young-joong said that he could now leave the world body with great satisfaction. "I've said before that my goal was to strengthen BWF's financial position ... and this agreement with IMG further ensures that. BWF are guaranteed higher revenues from this deal than ever before for media rights," he said. A new president – either Poul-Hoyer Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark or Justian Suhandinata of Indonesia – will take over after the annual general meeting (AGM) tomorrow. Related Stories: |
| Danish manager believes shuttlers will step up without two old stars Posted: 16 May 2013 06:49 PM PDT TWO old stars – Peter-Gade Christensen and reigning All-England champion Tine Baun – will be sorely missed when Denmark begin their Sudirman Cup campaign at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Sunday. But team manager Finn Traerup-Hansen believes that the Danes can still challenge for a medal in the world mixed team event. The talented Gade-Christensen, who has a great following in Malaysia, quit the sport last year while Baun retired after winning her third All-England title in March. In her absence, Denmark will be banking on new faces Julie Houmann, Line Kjaersfelt and Anna Thea Madsen to step up to the plate. The others in the team are women's doubles shuttlers Christinna Pedersen-Kamilla Rytter Juhl, Line Kruse-Marie Ropke. The Danish men are Jan O Jorgensen, Viktor Axelsen, Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen, Rasmus Bonde-Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Anders Kristiansen. Traerup-Hansen admitted that the women's singles "are in a transition state". "It's clear to everyone that our women's team isn't as strong as it used to be with the retirement of Tine," said Traerup-Hansen. "All our women's singles are from the Under-19 development programme. They are young and very motivated but their experience is limited. This will be a good platform for them to have a taste of a huge event. "We, however, have a strong mixed doubles, women's doubles and men's doubles line-ups. Our men's singles players are without Peter but Jan and Viktor can rise to the occasion. "This gives us the confidence that we can challenge for a medal in this year's edition." He, however, said that they would be keeping an eye on several teams. "Japan have come very far while Singapore have a reasonably good side. Malaysia have home advantage. China and South Korea will be the regular favourites. We will play to our best to stay among the medallist again," said Traerup-Hansen, who is also the Denmark BA director of sport. Denmark are in Group D with Japan and Singapore. Denmark reached the final at the previous edition in Qingdao, China, but were beaten 3-0 by China. THE GROUPINGS Group A: China, Indonesia, India. Group B: Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong. Group C: Malaysia, Germany, Taiwan. Group D: Denmark, Japan, Singapore. Related Stories: |
| Rexy calls the shots as Indonesian badminton supremo Posted: 16 May 2013 06:51 PM PDT FORMER Olympic gold medallist Rexy Mainaky is loving every minute of his high-profile job as Indonesia's high performance director. Rexy left Malaysia last year after serving for seven years. But not before pushing for the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to name a chief coach or a high performance director to chart the country's badminton fortunes. It did not work out for him in Malaysia but at least Rexy is glad that he's got the chance to do it the right way for Indonesia. As the new supremo, Rexy is ready to revive the flagging fortunes of Indonesian badminton. The ever jovial and friendly Rexy officially started work last month – almost a year after leaving the BAM in February last year and trying his luck with the Philippines for a while. And he said it was good to get back to his roots. "I've coached in England, Malaysia and the Philippines (briefly). After experiencing 13 wonderful years working aboard, it was time for me to return home," said Rexy, who is here with the Indonesian team for the Sudirman Cup, which will begin on Sunday at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil. "I was called to help restore Indonesia's status as one of the most successful badminton nations in the world and I felt it was time for me to give something back to my country. As an Olympic medallist, the management felt that the shuttlers will respect me and I'll be able to empower them. "As a performance director, I can put things in place. Like Malaysia, Indonesia also has talented players but something's gone missing. We want to develop players with potential into world-beaters in the right way. "As the main man, I can see the big picture and oversee the running of the whole training programme. I'm able to delegate the tasks at different levels of coaching and training of the players and monitor their progress," he said. "If there's something wrong, I'm able to spot it and also prevent the overlapping of roles. "As the performance director, I'm also able to conduct selection in a fair manner. I'm able to question the coaches if I think the selection of a player is not justified. My experience will surely help. "I have laid out both the short and long-term plans and am confident that Indonesia will rise up again." Indonesia will be taking part in the Sudirman Cup without two key players – Sony Dwi Kuncoro and Simon Santoso – but Rexy is not too perturbed. "It's time to give the younger players a chance to prove themselves. I believe that Tommy Sugiarto and Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka are just as capable. They just need the opportunity and platform to establish themselves," he said. "Sony and Simon are still part of the national team but we are opening up. We are working in partnership with our junior programme so that everything will be in tandem with the vision of the national team." At the 2012 London Olympic Games, Indonesia suffered their worst outing when they failed to win any medals. It was the first time that they returned empty-handed since badminton made its debut as an Olympic sport in Barcelona in 1992. Related Stories: |
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