J

AKARTA: The BNI-ASTEC Open national badminton championship returns this year with more than 1,500 youth shuttlers from around the archipelago competing in the seventh edition of the tournament, which will take place between Dec. 5 and 11 at the Asia Afrika badminton hall in Jakarta.

The championship, which was founded by the former Barcelona Olympics mixed doubles gold medalists Susy Susanti and her husband Alan Budikusuma, offers an overall prize of Rp 200 million (US$22,200) in five categories: children, beginners, youth, junior and adults, with the youngest participants being in the Under-11 category.

Among the national shuttlers competing in the adult category are Rendra Wijaya, Rian Sukmawan, Fauzi Adnan and Ahmad Rifai.

“Although 10 junior shuttlers from Taiwan are also participating, this tournament’s main goal is to support the regeneration of badminton in our country,” Susy said.

The tournament takes the name of ASTEC, or Alan-Susy Technology, a local sports equipment brand owned by the couple.

Two years ago, the ASTEC Open enjoyed a higher level of international challenge, with more competitors from the Asian region.

“We are hopeful that someday this tournament can again rise to the international level like two years ago. In order to achieve that, however, there a lot of factors to be addressed, such as the prize money, participants, sponsorship contracts, and obtaining a permit from the Badminton World Federation,” said Susy.

This year’s cosponsor is the state-owned bank BNI. The bank’s vice president of funding and services, Donny Bima, said BNI welcomed the possibility to further support the country’s badminton development.

“The main sport we currently support is volleyball, but we are open to discussing further cooperation with the PBSI [Badminton Association of Indonesia]. We also hope to maintain this cooperation with ASTEC in the future,” said Donny.