Hosts Indonesia believe they have a much stronger team this year have set the semi-finals at least or even the final in this year's Pembangunan Jayaraya Badminton Asia Junior Championships to be held in Jakarta from July 22-30.
After the disappointment of failing to make the knockout stage in last year's SCG Asian Junior meet in Bangkok, the Indonesians are hoping for the team to strike rich at home with the backing of their vociferous home fans.
Indonesian badminton's coaching and high performance director Susy Susanti is confident that the Garuda outfit has the material to make it count but in the same breath was quick to point out that "you need to win all matches to win the gold".
"It will not be an easy task but the present team is highly motivated to go for success. Our initial target is to make the semis and take off from there," said Susy, an Olympic gold medallist and Indonesia's best known woman shuttler.
"This team has been training since March. And at the recent Indonesia Open the team did reasonably well at the Superseries Premier event. This has boosted their confidence for the junior championships."
The venue for this year's Pembangunan Jayaraya Badminton Asia Championships is the Jaya Raya Sports Hall Training Center in Jakarta. The mixed team event will be held from July 22-26 and this will be followed by the individual events.
Indonesia are drawn in Group D and have Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Nepal for company. The top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout stage.
For the record Indonesia are seeded second in the mixed team event – behind South Korea, runners-up to China in the last four years. Thailand are seeded third and Malaysia fourth.
"Our battle begins in the group stage before we can think of the knockout stage. Still, we are focused on achieving at least our initial targets…the semis at least. It will be a different target from this stage and the gold medal is within our reach," added Susy.
Uber Cupper Gregoria Mariska, the women's singles silver medal winner last year is the top seed this time.
The Indonesian Team
Men
Gatjra Piliang Fiqihilahi Cupu
Muhammad Shohibul Fikri
Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto
Adnan Maulana
Ghifari Anandaffa Prihardika
Rinov Rivaldy
Ikhsan Leonardo Imanuel Rumbay
Women
Agatha Imanuela
Serena Kani
Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti
Jauza Fadhila Sugiarto
Ribka Sugiarto
Gregoria Mariska
Aurum Oktavia Winata
Angelica Wiratama
