The Brunei Times
National shuttler Jasper Yu Woon Chai will train with Indonesian club, the Tangkas Badminton Club, in Jakarta.
NATIONAL shuttler Jasper Yu Woon Chai wants to learn from the best in the business and yesterday left for Jakarta for a training stint.Although Indonesia lost to China in the final of the Thomas Cup on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, the country's capital, Jakarta, is considered a nursery for budding badminton players.
The 21-year-old Bruneian will be training with the Tangkas Badminton Club, which is run by the Suhandinata family, namely Suharso Suhandinata.
Suharso played a key role in the unification of the then split International Badminton Federation and World Badminton Federation in the 1980s.
The unification was a significant step towards badminton's inclusion in the Olympic Games.
"Tangkas is one of the best badminton clubs. The club boasts of names like Rexy Mainaky and Lilyana Natsir," said Yu.
Rexy is a former men's doubles world champion from Indonesia. He won the men's doubles Olympic gold medal in 1996 with partner Ricky Subagja.
Currently Rexy is the men's doubles coach of Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Lilyana has represented the Indonesian women's team and specialises in doubles.
Accolades she has won include mixed doubles at the Asian Championships and four World Grand Prix titles in 2006.
Other figures that the club has produced include world and Olympic champions like Icuk Sugiarto, Hermawan Susanto, Joko Suprianto, Luis Ponggoh and Verawaty Fajrin.
"I'm going to train with the club for three months. I'm aiming to improve my technique and physical fitness," said the national player before departing at the Brunei International Airport in Berakas yesterday.
"Badminton has always been my passion and because of the strong support from my family and club I am always aiming to do better. I also want to help raise the standard of the sport in Brunei," Yu added.
He is accompanied by compatriot Ak Halim Pg Ismail, who has already been there for at least 10 months.
"Most probably we will go straight from Jakarta to Melaka for the Sukma (Malaysia) Games in June," Yu added.
Yet to be confirmed, Yu mentioned that most probably he would be competing in both the singles and doubles events.
He recently took part in the Yang Amat Mulia Pg Indera Mahkota Pg (Dr) Kamaluddin Al-Haj Badminton Championship Cup, which concluded on May 8.
The most promising national shuttler claimed a double in the tournament, smashing his way to both the Open Singles Under-23 and Men's Doubles A titles.
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