Jakarta, 1 March 2022 -- The victory of the Indonesian Badminton Team in the struggle for the Badminton Asia Team Championships 2022 or BATC 2022 Trophy is a proud achievement for Indonesia. The Indonesian women's team won the final after beating South Korea 3-1 in Selangor, Malaysia.
PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero), Tbk (BNI) as the official sponsor of the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) again gave its appreciation through the delivery of savings for athletes, coaches, and officials.
The appreciation was assembled at the BNI BATC 2022 Appreciation event in Jakarta, Tuesday (1 March 2022). The event was attended by the General Chairperson of the Central Board of the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI), Agung Firman Sampurna, and BNI’s President Director, Royke Tumilaar. The event, which was also attended by the Daily Chair of PP PBSI, Alex Tirta along with athletes, coaches, and officials, was held by strictly maintaining the Health Protocol.
Responding to the achievements of the Indonesian Badminton Team, the SOEs Minister, Erick Thohir appreciated the struggle of the Indonesian Badminton Team. "We are very grateful to all the athletes and coaches of the Indonesian Badminton Team for your persistence and enthusiasm. This is an infinite pride," he said.
He said the government always encourages SOEs to be proactive in developing priority sports, especially badminton, which has become global. BNI as an international Bank is always ready to answer all the needs of developing this sport that is the pride of the Indonesian people. "Moreover, BNI has the same vision and mission as the Indonesian Badminton Team, which is to bring Indonesia consistently to excel internationally," he said.
Seeing Out to All England
On this occasion, Erick also wished good luck to the Indonesian Badminton Team who will fight at the All England Open 2022. This is certainly a competition that is expected to become a medal field for the Indonesian badminton team, considering that this competition is one of the oldest and most prestigious popular badminton competitions in the world.
"Our struggle this time is quite heavy in this championship because Indonesia must maintain the victories that have been achieved in 2020. We must also be able to replace the momentum that was missed last year when Indonesia did not participate in the All England Open 2021 with more wins this year," he mentioned.
In the mean time, Royke also appreciated the Indonesian Badminton Team for making another proud achievement in the global arena. The entire big family of BNI HI-Movers certainly feels the joy felt by the Indonesian Badminton Team.
He said that the latest victory from the Indonesian Women's Badminton Team was the first time at the prestigious BATC 2022 event. Even more exciting was because the team that was dispatched to the 2022 BATC was a team consisting of primary athletes or young athletes.
This shows that regeneration in the athlete's environment continues. Although relatively young, this team has been able to achieve the proudest results, namely the Champion for the Women's Team and Runner Up for the Men's Team.
"We realize that this achievement is the result of the relentless struggle of the nation's best youth who are persistent and always eager to prove that Indonesia is a tough nation, and has a world champion mentality," he said.
Going forward, BNI is committed to continuing to support the development and mentoring of the badminton branch carried out by PBSI to continue to carve out historic achievements worldwid.
"We are also very grateful because BNI was given the opportunity to be able to contribute to the development of badminton in Indonesia, which has always recorded worldwide achievements," he said.
Supporting Proactively
On the occasion, Agung Firman Sampurna said that BNI had helped a lot in the development of national badminton. As an international Bank, BNI has always been proactive in supporting the National Badminton Team to make dozens of achievements and world titles with the 2022 BATC as the latest achievement.
Agung added that since BNI became a sponsor, Indonesia has continuously won international titles. Hopefully this will be a provision to get other international titles. According to Agung, he hopes that this collaborative and enthusiastic effort can be continued. Can give something more to this country, because badminton is not just a sport but a unifying nation.
"We express our gratitude and appreciation to the main sponsor in this case BNI. Since 2021, we have won championship after championship, namely 22 championships, with the peak being the Olympic Championship and the Thomas Cup since BNI became the Main Sponsor of PBSI. In the future, we will also I hope that more medals will be won by the Indonesian Badminton Team," concluded Agung.