L

ya Ersalita moves briskly over the court chasing the shuttlecock from one corner to the other. At the tender age of 11, she already possesses great striking power, enough to sink her opponent at the recent Tetra Pak Junior Open badminton tournament.

Lya has a straightforward target - impress the country's badminton authority and be called up for a training camp.

"I want to be the next Susi Susanti or Mia Audina," said Lya, stretching after winning the girls' singles final on Saturday.

She was accompanied by her mother, Erna Hikmayati.

"She's my pearl. She's talented," Erna said proudly of her daughter, who will be 12 on Aug. 7.

Lya recently received a scholarship from her club, Jaya Raya, for her achievements. She won the Jakarta Open National Circuit and snatched two gold medals in singles and mixed doubles at the ASEAN Elementary Students Championship last year.

Those achievements also earned her a Satya Lencana award from President Susilo Bambang Yudho-yono last month.

She is chasing a spot at the national training camp for shuttlers under 15 years-old.

At her age, she has three years to further impress.

Lya has played in numerous competitions since she was in elementary school and collected some 90 trophies and medals.

However, Lya could be a neglected pearl, as the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) is not taking seriously its effort to nurture the talent showcased at the Tetra Pak tournament.

There were no talent-scouts at the tournament, which featured 1,260 young players competing in Under-12 and Under-14 events. The players came from 111 clubs and 18 provinces.

Jakarta's Jaya Raya badminton club emerged as the overall champions after Lya bagged two victories in the girls' singles, defeating fellow club member Russelly Hartawan.

The victory was sealed in the girls' doubles, where Lya/Russelly defeated Monalisa/Shinta from Bandung's Mutiara club.

Tournament director Mimi Irawan and former national star Retno Kustijah acknowledged the absence of PBSI's talent-scouting team during the event.

"The participants are still too young to be scouted," Mimi told The Jakarta Post.

"PBSI talent-scouting teams normally attend tournaments with older participants, like in the recent Jakarta Open National Circuit," Mimi explained.

The teams are comprised of coaches from the East Java and West Java regional badminton associations and Jakarta's top two clubs: Tangkas and Jaya Raya.

Head of the organizing committee, former women's doubles player Rosiana Tendean, has a different opinion. "Talent-scouting must be done at the earliest age possible to give sufficient time for the juniors to improve or correct their basic skills.

"The scouting is also crucial for the association to create a solid database of the juniors and monitor their progress," Rosiana said.

It is too late for talent-scouting when juniors are above 14, she added.

Rosiana acknowledged the practice of falsifying the age of the young players.