DONG JIONG REMAINS WORLD NUMBER ONE IN MEN'S SINGLES August 9, 1996 (D.Shuttlenws) - In the first world rankings issued by the International Badminton Federation after the Atlanta Olympic Games, Dong Jiong of China remains on top of the men's singles rankings despite his loss in the finals to Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark. The world rankings are based on the performance of players in tournaments recognized by the federation over a 12 month period. Tournaments are rated by stars and the more stars a tournament has, the more points a player can get. For example, the Olympic Games is a 7 star event and the winner gets at least 600 ranking points plus bonus points for defeating higher-ranked players. Total points are divided by the number of tournaments that a player has competed in over the past 12 months. Also, the value of points earned in more recent tournaments is higher than points earned in earlier competitions. Despite his winning the Olympic gold medal and defeating the higher- ranked Dong Jiong, Hoyer-Larsen could not overtake the Chinese player in the rankings because the Dane had played in 7 more events than Dong and his higher overall points had to be divided by 15 while Dong's overall points was only divided by 8. Bronze medalist Rashid Sidek of Malaysia moves up to number five just ahead of Allan Budi Kusuma of Indonesia. Dropping out of the top 10 and down precipitously to number 26 is the off-form Hermawan Susanto of Indonesia. Men's Singles Rankings as of August 6, 1996 1. Dong Jiong - China 367.14 points 2. Joko Suprianto - Indonesia 305.44 3. Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen - Denmark 295.04 4. Heryanto Arbi - Indonesia 261.17 5. Rashid Sidek - Malaysia 250.59 6. Allan Budi-Kusuma - Indonesia 244.74 7. Park Sung Woo - South Korea 238.86 8. Ardy Wiranata - Indonesia 238.77 9. Lee Kwang Jin - South Korea 230.82 10. Thomas Stuer-Lauridsen - Denmark 216.19 11. Sun Jun - China 216.02 12. Yu Lizhi - China 208.50 13. Fung Permadi - Chinese Taipei 196.58 14. Peter Rasmussen - Denmark 192.91 15. Kim Hak Kyun - South Korea 186.64 16. Ong Ewe Hock - Malaysia 180.80 17. Ahn Jae Chang - South Korea 170.57 18. Lin Liwen - China 165.80 19. Jens Olsson - Sweden 161.28 20. Hendrawan - Indonesia 157.10 21. Darren Hall - England 153.16 22. Jeroen van Dijk - Netherlands 149.63 23. Thomas Johansson -Sweden 140.18 24. Peter Knowles - England 132.73 25. Hu Zhilan - China 131.32 26. Hermawan Susanto - Indonesia 130.69 27. Martin Lundgaard-Hansen - Denmark 127.50 28. Soren Nielsen - Denmark 122.58 29. Rikard Magnusson - Sweden 122.33 30. Pang Chen - Malaysia 120.85 31. Oliver Pongratz - Germany 119.83 32. Liu En-Horng - Chinese Taipei 118.24 33. Robert Liljequist - Finland 114.82 34. Pontus Jantti - Finland 113.03 35. Chris Bruil - Netherlands 99.89 36. Jesper Olsson - Sweden 98.50 37. Chen Gang - China 98.03 38. Joris van Soerland - Netherlands 97.96 39. Anders Nielsen - England 97.17 40. Kenneth Jonassen - Denmark 96.78 41. Iain Sydie - Canada 95.57 42. Pierre Pelupessy - Netherlands 94.59 43. Luo Yigang - China 92.66 44. Peter Gade - Denmark 92.43 45. Henrik Bengtsson - Denmark 91.93 46. Thomas Wapp - Switzerland 90.31 47. Chang Jeng-Shyong - Chinese Taipei 88.88 48. Hannes Fuchs - Austria 88.52 49. Imay Hendra - Switzerland 87.58 50. Jim Laugessen - Denmark 87.43 51. Kitipon Kitikul - Thailand 87.11 52. Deepankar Bhattacharya - India 86.70 53. Hans Sperre - Norway 85.56 54. Colin Haughton - England 83.44 55. Pavel Uvarov - Russia 82.62 56. Andreij Antropov - Russia 81.14 57. Murray Hocking - Australia 80.81 58. Detlef Poste - Germany 80.30 59. Jyri Aalto - Finland 78.79 60. Rosobin Jeffer - Indonesia 78.04 61. Fumihiko Machida - Japan 77.07 62. Bruce Flockhart - Scotland 75.91 63. Kevin Han - USA 75.53 64. Dariusz Zieba - Poland 74.52 65. Tan Sian Peng - Singapore 72.63 66. Tam Kai Chuen - Hong Kong 71.70 67. Jaimie Dawson - Canada 71.33 68. Anders Boesen - Denmark 71.30 69. Indra Wijaya - Indonesia 70.99 70. Dwi Aryanto - Indonesia 70.84 71. Jurgen Koch - Austria 69.75 72. Rasmus Wengberg - Sweden 69.23 73. Vladislav Druzchenko - Ukraine 68.94 74. Shen Yifeng - Australia 68.23 75. Lasse Lindelof - Finland 66.45 76. Yong Hock Kin - Malaysia 66.26 77. Seiichi Watanabe - Japan 66.10 78. Ge Cheng - China 66.00 79. Daniel Eriksson - Sweden 65.21 80. P. Gopichand - India 63.77 81. Vladislav Tikhomirov - Russia 62.99 82. Lee Mie-Chow - Chinese Taipei 62.74 83. Peter Bush - England 62.21 84. Etienne Thobois - France 61.24 85. Pedro Vanneste - Belgium 60.42 86. Craig Booley - Australia 59.37 87. Mikail Korchouk - Belarus 59.20 88. Peter Kreulitsch - Austria 58.78 89. Takahiro Suka - Japan 58.71 90. Thomas Sogaard - Denmark 58.51 91. Todor Velkov - Bulgaria 58.13 92. Fernando Silva - Portugal 56.34 93. Lo Ah Heng - Malaysia 55.95 94. George Rimarodi - Indonesia 54.83 95. Robert Nock - England 54.19 96. Martin Hagberg - Sweden 52.51 97. Nicholas Hall - New Zealand 51.92 98. Ismail Samad - Malaysia 51.23 99. M. Roslin Hashim - Malaysia 50.51 100. Marleve Mainaky - Indonesia 49.63 COPYRIGHT 1996 by YANG YANG and D.Shuttlenws@genie.com. PERMISSION GIVEN to redistribute, reprint, or repost in whole or in part on a NON-COMMERCIAL basis provided that the above copyright notice is retained in all redistributions, reprints and reposts.