Jason Thomas
The Brunei Times
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Saturday, September 4, 2010
MAKE no mistake about it, Brunei's hopes of enjoying any recognition in the international badminton arena lie squarely on the shoulders of two players who have been training in Indonesia for months.
Rarely does the Sultanate have budding local professionals who sacrifice so willingly for their sport, but Ak Abdul Halim Al-Hakim Pg Hj Ismail and Jasper Yu Woon Chai are perfect examples of such athletes.
Having decided that badminton is their calling, the two national players have been putting in eight-hour intensive training shifts at the Tangkas Badminton Club in Jakarta with the hopes of breaking into the world scene.
Fully sponsored by Athirah Badminton Club, one of the most successful clubs in the Sultanate, Ak Abdul Halim has been in the Indonesian capital on and off for eight months and Yu for three.
"We want to put Brunei on the badminton map ... We want to make Brunei proud," they told The Brunei Times on Wednesday.
"Our aim is to represent Brunei at the world stage and be the first professionals.
"We are the only two badminton players training abroad but the problem now is we need more exposure," said the pair.
Perfecting their skills at the club which produced Men's World No 3 Simon Santoso, mixed doubles' World No 3 Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir as well as Malaysia's mens doubles coach Rexy Mainaky, their training schedule at Tangkis means they are submersed into the world of badminton 24-7.
From 9am to 1pm they have court sessions where they work on skills and spar with other players. Weight training and drills for strokes, shuttle runs and footwork are also common, and during 5pm to 8pm they play more matches and 2v1 or 3v1 matchups.
"We only train half the day on Saturday. We are free on Sunday but we go to the club and practice anyway," they said.
Such dedication is not uncommon in Indonesia, where badminton is seen as a path to a bright future in a country which has produced more than its fair share of world-class players.
Some of Indonesia's best players like world and Olympic champions Hendrawan, Icuk Sugiarto, Joko Suprianto and Verawaty Fajrin have all trained at Tangkas, giving Ak Abdul Halim and Yu belief that they can follow in their footsteps.
They aren't the first Bruneians at the club though, with two-time national champion Zulkifli Mohd Salleh also honing his skills at Tangkas in the millenium era.
Training under two singles and one doubles coach, there are around 100 players divided into three age groups at Tangkas; 11-14 years old, 15-17 years old, and 17-and-above.
Ak Abdul Halim said that when he first got to Tangkas, last October, he found it hard to adjust to the speed and power of his competitors but perseverance and a lot of hard work have helped him pull through.
"I was losing to 16 to 17-year-old players by 15 points but I slowly got better and closed the gap," he said.
"I trained hard so I could balance myself out and after two months I could give them a fight. Now it is more balanced and I play with 18 to 19-year-olds," he added.
Ak Abdul Halim went on to say that he will give himself until 2013 to breakthrough while Yu is only going to focus on the sport until the end of the year, when he will then continue his studies at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
Staying together in Indonesia, they have been able to build on the ties they forged after playing on the same side of the court for years.
Ex-national coach Wu Xue Kai paired the two players for the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Friendship Games which Brunei hosted in December 2008, and they have been playing together ever since.
They reached the third round of the Yonex Brunei Open in January and also competed in the Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Melaka in June as well as the Borneo Games which Brunei hosted last December.
At Tangkas though, it's each man to himself and they don't train for doubles surprisingly.
"We've definitely tasted more success in doubles than in singles but at the moment we think we're still young and we should be out challenging in those categories," said Yu.
"We're not focusing solely on singles or doubles, we're dividing our attention evenly in both categories. We only train singles in Tangkas because we think that a good singles player can definitely play good doubles but a good doubles player is not necessarily a good singles player, mainly due to court coverage ability.
"Training singles enable us to have the ability to cover the full court easier, but of course, there are differences in terms of technique in singles and doubles. But we're fine with it (and) we understand each other very well on and off court, so we think we can overcome (not training for doubles)," added Yu, who admires Men's world No 1 Lee Chong Wei because of his footwork and style of play.
Is it a race between the two to see who can reach the international stage first?
"It's definitely competitive between us but we still maintain a close brotherhood," grinned Yu.
"I think he's very talented and by the time he's my age he'll be awesome! I think he is better than I was when I was his age," he added.
The bond between the two was obvious throughout the interview, and though they only had good things to say about each other, there was one question that had to be asked; who would come out on top if they faced each other?
"It would be 50/50," they agree. "I would win half and he would win half," said Yu, almost too diplomatically.
But training day and night does not make a champion, and the pair know that only by competing regularly can they make it to the big time.
Ak Abdul Halim has played in two events in Indonesia's Sirkuit Nasional (National Circuit) and the results have been encouraging.
He failed to progress past the first round (round of 64) of the singles competition in an event in Pekanbaru in April but advanced to the second round (round of 16) in the doubles category.
A month later in May he advanced past the first round of the singles competition in a tournament in Bandung.
"I can see the improvement," said Ak Abd Halim.
"I hope I can take part in more tournaments and elevate my standing as I progress. I reached the first round, then second, so now it has to be third," added Ak Abdul Halim, who is a fan of Men's World No 2 Lin Dan's power and speed.
Both Ak Abdul Halim and Yu competed at an International Challenge event in Surabaya in July but fell at the first hurdle of the three-star Badminton World Federation (BWF) competition.
Ak Abdul Halim lost to Indonesian Aldi Gilang in straight sets, though it was a close fight. Yu couldn't have asked for a worse draw if he tried, meeting Indonesian No 1 junior Riyanto Subagja in the first round where his campaign ended with a 21-14, 21-4 defeat.
One-star (Future Series), two-star (International Series) and three-star (International Challenge) events allow amateur players gain experience and world ranking points before going on to challenge the big guns in the four-star (Grand Prix), five-star (Grand Prix Gold) and six-star (Super Series) events.
The Future Series, International Series and International Challenge are less strict in terms of draws and qualification, and the duo said they can probably get into the reserve list of Grand Prix tournaments.
"Right now we do have ranking points," explained Yu, "but we don't know how much because we haven't been playing BWF circuits on a regular basis so BWF won't take note of that."
"Surabaya was only Ak Abdul Halim's first BWF tournament and only when we compete in world tours regularly will BWF take us seriously," he added.
The pair will be going back to Tangkas after Hari Raya and the focus will be firmly on securing better results in BWF tournaments.
"The aim? To continue to play as good as we can until we get noticed," agreed the winners of last June's Youth Sports Festival doubles title. "We are not just looking at being noticed by coaches but also by sponsors.
"I'm not sure if there are any scouts in badminton because I've never heard of it. You get recognised in badminton by doing well in tournaments and achieving good results. When you do well, people talk about you.
"We have to make a name for ourselves."
