Badminton federation says sorry, but won't back down

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 05/11/2008 12:37 PM | Sports

The Badminton World Federation will apologize to teams forced to play twice a day during the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup, but is ruling out any changes to the schedule.

"There has been a misunderstanding between the federation and the organizing committee (about the schedule). I apologize to those teams," chair of the federation's sport committee Anne Smillie told a press conference on Saturday.

Smillie said the federation would not change the schedule despite protests from teams, but promised similar problems would not happen in the future thanks to improved tournament guidelines.

The Dutch Uber Cup team has protested against the rescheduling of the women's badminton team matches, which will require the team to play both Indonesia and Japan on the same day.

Uber Cup teams from the United States, New Zealand and Hong Kong are also scheduled to play two matches a day during the tournament.

The South Korean, Japanese, Nigerian and Thai Thomas Cup teams will have to play twice a day during the early rounds of the men's team matches.

The organizers have said the teams had to play twice a day because the length of the tournament had been cut from nine days to eight.

The two prestigious competitions get under way at the Bung Karno sports hall in Jakarta today.

The Jakarta Police announced Saturday that 752 police officers would be in place to ensure security during the tournament.

"That number includes police officers who are assigned to protect players and team officials from their arrival at the airport," Central Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Heru Winarko said, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla has promised to present cash bonuses to the Indonesian shuttlers should Indonesia win the tournament.

"We are all proud of you," Kalla told the players during an impromptu visit to the Indonesian training camp.

"The whole country is hoping you can deliver the prize." (ewd)

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