NATIONAL doubles coach Rexy Mainaky still draws huge interest among Indonesian journalists and fans.

The scene at the Istora Senaya Stadium turned chaotic when Rexy walked in with the Malaysian Thomas and Uber Cup teams in Jakarta yesterday.

Several local journalists rushed to him for interviews while fans waited at the stands hoping he would take pictures with them.

As expected, Rexy, who won the doubles gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, obliged.

However, local journalists were in for a shock when one of them asked Rexy whether he would be hoping for Indonesia to win their 14th Thomas Cup in the Indonesian capital.
Rexy coolly replied: "My obligation is to the Malaysian Thomas Cup team. I'm here to help Malaysia win the Thomas Cup. As I am a professional coach, my priorities are with Malaysia."

He added: "When I was a shuttler, I gave my best to Indonesia. I won four Thomas Cup titles when I was a member of the team. However, now my goal is to guide Malaysia to the title."

Meanwhile, several officials from other competing countries were seen video recording Malaysia's first training session at the stadium yesterday.

This came as a surprise for national chief coach Yap Kim Hock as he taught the focus would be on other teams like China and Indonesia.

"It shows that other countries still fear us. I suppose they want to analyse our shuttlers' strength and weaknesses," said Kim Hock.

"However, we will not waste our time videotaping the training sessions of other nations as we want to concentrate on preparing our players for the event."

Among the other countries who had their first training yesterday were the hosts, China, Germany, Denmark and England.

Malaysia open their Thomas Cup campaign against England while the Uber Cup team open against New Zealand, both tomorrow.