Guatemala's Christian Erichsen receives Olympic Scholarship

IBF are delighted to announce the award of another Olympic Solidarity Sydney 2000 scholarship for badminton. This time the scholarship goes to Guatemala's Christian Erichsen. The scholarship means that Christian will receive home-training support of around US$1,200 per month and return air travel for his full tournament programme will be covered until the year 2000. Congratulations to Christian on this award - another boost for Pan-American badminton. After the disappointment of Budiarto Sigit losing his scholarship following a positive drugs test this comes as very welcome news.

MAJOR SUCCESS WITH SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMMES

The IBF Development Department have been rewarded for the their new aggressive approach to applying for Olympic Solidarity Scholarships. Historically badminton has only ever been awarded two youth scholarships and none of the prestigious Olympic preparation scholarships. Now ten 'Sydney 2000' scholarships have been awarded to badminton and four 'Young, promising athletes'' scholarships totalling an incredible estimated value of $720,000. The scholarships will last until the end of the year 2000 and pay a substantial allowance for training and living costs for each of the 14 athletes as well as international travel for all approved competitions for athletes awarded 'Sydney 2000' scholarships. The confirmed scholarship holders are listed below and more are under consideration.

Young Promising Athlete Scholarships:

• Denis Constantin (Mauritius)
• Amrita Sawaran (Mauritius)
• Taufik Hidayat (Indonesia)
• Chan Choong Ming (Malaysia)

Sydney 2000 Scholarships:

• Christian Erichsen (Guatemala)
• Mario Carulla (Peru)
• Chandra Wijaya (Indonesia)
• Deyana Lomban (Indonesia)
• Ong Ewe Hock (Malaysia)
• Cheah Soon Kit (Malaysia)
• Choong Tan Fook (Malaysia)
• Jeremy Wye Teck Gan (Malaysia)
• Boris Kesov (Bulgaria)
• Sveinn Solvason (Iceland)

Budiarto Sigit (Indonesia) has had his Sydney 2000 scholarship withdrawn following a positive drugs test.