S

ixteen young shuttlers are undergoing a two-day selection for a place in the national team as the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) looks to work out its long-term goals.

The trainees, aged between 15 and 19, come from 10 different clubs. Selection began on Thursday, with the PBSI scrutinizing the young shuttlers' physical, medical and psychological shape.

'I hope I can join the national training camp. I think I did my best [during the test] but it's all up to the coaches,' Nisak Puji Lestari from the Mutiara Cardinal Bandung club was quoted as saying at the selection.

She said that she was selected to join the national team for the 2014 World Junior Championships held on April 7-18 in Alor Setar, Malaysia, so she was hopeful that she could also take part in the training camp and become a permanent member of the squad.

The Indonesian junior squad won silver in the team event after being defeated by China in the final round at the championships. Meanwhile, in individual events, Indonesia grabbed two silver and two bronze medals.

Unfortunately the senior squad came home without a win from the Japan Open Super Series, Indonesia Open Super Series Premier or Australia Open Super Series, which has resulted in the urgent need for the PBSI to regenerate its current team.

'We have done evaluations after each tournament and I believe that if we want to have better players in, say, two to four years, we need to change the whole program,' PBSI division head of development and achievement Rexy Mainaky said after the Indonesia Open Super Series last month.

'We need to focus on players who have potency. We need to push them further and give them chances [to participate in international tournaments],' he added.

In the long-term program, Rexy said he hoped that a badminton training and education center could be revived so that children who dedicated their lives to badminton did not have to worry about getting permission from school when they needed to participate in a tournament.

'If we revived [the training and education center], I believe we could have reliable athletes. If it is agreed upon, we could start [the center] four years from now,' he said.

The selection participants were Fitriani, Berlian Sudrajat, Dinar Dyah Ayustine (women's singles); Setyana Mapasa, Brigita Marcelia Rumambi, Rika Rositawati, Nisak Puji Lestari, Jauza Fadhila Sugiarto, Apriani Rahayu, M. Cindy Sahputri (women's doubles); Fajar Alfian, Hantoro, Yanthoni Edy Saputra, Rian Swastedian, M. Alpian Firsada Sangaji, (men's doubles); and Zakia Ulfa (mixed doubles).