No Olympic bid for silat, official says<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The International Pencak Silat Federation
\n(Persilat) refuted reports that it would bid to have the
\nIndonesian martial art included in the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
The federation insisted it was concentrating all its efforts
\non having pencak silat featured as an exhibition sport at the
\n2002 Asian Games in Pusan, South Korea.<\/p>\n
\"We have never made a bid (for the Olympics) because our
\npriority is to ensure the sport is featured at the Pusan Asiad. I
\nhave no idea why Megat Zulkarnain (the secretary-general of the
\nMalaysian Pencak Silat Federation) made that statement,\" Persilat
\nsecretary-general Oyong Karmayudha said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\"I have not contacted Megat but his statement was incorrect,
\nbecause every initiative has to go through me as Persilat's
\nsecretary-general.\"<\/p>\n
Utusan Malaysia quoted Megat as saying on Wednesday that
\nPersilat had received a positive response from the International
\nOlympics Committee (IOC) about the sport being included in the
\nOlympics.<\/p>\n
\"We submitted a letter to IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch
\non March 26 saying Persilat hopes the sport can be included in
\nthe Olympics, and the response was good,\" Megat was quoted as
\nsaying.<\/p>\n
Oyong said Persilat's country members did not have the
\nauthority to contact the IOC on their own, and any such
\ninitiative had to go through Persilat as pencak silat's world
\ngoverning body and international federation.<\/p>\n
\"Besides, in his proposal Megat said Persilat has 83 country
\nmembers while in fact we only have some 40 members.\"<\/p>\n
The chance of pencak silat being staged as an exhibition sport
\nat the Pusan Asiad appears to be slim, with the Pusan Asian Games
\nOrganizing Committee (PAGOC) having already thrown out an earlier
\nagreement to include the sport.<\/p>\n
\"We recently received a letter from the PAGOC saying it was
\nnot possible to stage pencak silat because there were no funds to
\ncover the expenses, although we submitted a proposal saying
\nPersilat would provide the funds.<\/p>\n
\"The letter was signed by PAGOC's deputy secretary-general,
\nwho doesn't have any authority to make such a decision. It turns
\nout that PAGOC's secretary-general who made the earlier
\ncommitment, Hahn Gi-bok, has resigned because of poor health,\"
\nOyong said.<\/p>\n
\"This forced us to approach PAGOC chairman Kim Un-yong, who is
\nalso the chairman of the South Korea Olympic Committee, to
\nclarify the matter.\"<\/p>\n
Oyong said it seemed that there had been some miscommunication
\nbetween PAGOC officials concerning pencak silat's inclusion in
\nthe Asiad.<\/p>\n
In another matter, Oyong expressed surprise that Malaysia had
\ndecided to include the women's 70 to 75 kilogram weightclass in
\nthe tarung (fighting) event at the Sept. 8 to Sept. 17 Southeast
\nAsian Games, while eliminating the women's team arts event.<\/p>\n
\"I think Malaysia, as the host, is doing this to ensure its
\ngoal of taking eight of the 21 golds at stake.\" (nvn)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/no-olympic-bid-for-silat-official-says-1447893297",
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