KONI wants to top 2003 medal tally<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The National Sports Council (KONI) expects its 2005 Southeast
\nAsia (SEA) Games team to exceed its medal haul from the last
\nregional competition after successfully lobbying for an
\nadditional 53 events.<\/p>\n
\"I'm sure that we could reach more than 210 medals, which was
\nthe total of our medal collection in the last SEA Games,\" KONI
\nhead of development Djoko Pramono told a news conference on
\nTuesday.<\/p>\n
\"But we couldn't speculate about winning the SEA Games,
\nbecause we have difficulty in beating Thailand and Vietnam at
\npresent.\"<\/p>\n
Djoko thanked the KONI delegation to the Southeast Asia Games
\nFederation meeting in Manila from April 28-30 for securing the
\nadditional events for the 23rd Games, to be held in December in
\nthe Philippine capital.<\/p>\n
The delegation was led by KONI secretary-general Djohar Arifin
\nHusin, accompanied by senior officials including Indra
\nKartasasmita and Sri Sudono Sumarto.<\/p>\n
Among the additional events are men's and women's badminton
\nteam competitions, men's and women's tennis teams, light
\nflyweight and light middleweight in bodybuilding, blitz chess
\nmen's and women's singles, the over 100 kilograms class in the
\nmen's division of judo and over 78 kilograms in the women's.<\/p>\n
\"About 85 percent of our proposal was accepted in the
\nmeeting,\" Djoko said.<\/p>\n
\"Now we can predict that we will be able to beat the
\nPhilippines although it will send some 300 athletes to China for
\nsix months to train.\"<\/p>\n
Indonesia, which dominated the SEA Games in the 1980s and
\nearly 1990s, finished third in the medal standings for the 2003
\nSEA Games, behind champion Vietnam and Thailand.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Djohar hoped that Indonesian athletes would be more
\nmotivated to win gold because of the additional events.<\/p>\n
\"We are pleased with the addition of the events because in the
\nlast SEAG Federation meeting, it was decided that the SEA Games
\nwould only feature events which were listed for the Olympic
\nGames,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"Events like men's and women's badminton teams, men's and
\nwomen's tennis teams will finally be competed in the 2005 SEA
\nGames, which is good news for Indonesia.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/koni-wants-to-top-2003-medal-tally-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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