Olympic-qualified shuttlers banned from competing in PON<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI) finally
\ndecided to ban 19 Olympics qualified shuttlers from performing in
\nthe 15th National Games (PON) in Surabaya this month.<\/p>\n
The decision is considered controversial as at the same time
\nKONI allowed women's tae kwon doin Juana Wangsa Putri, who is
\nrecovering from her injury, and her junior Rahadewi Neta to
\ncompete in PON and in the Korea Open championships in Seoul at
\nthe same time later this month.<\/p>\n
KONI had earlier claimed it would focus on badminton because
\nthe sport has the greatest chance to contribute gold medals in
\nthe Olympic Games. But it also pledged that it would not be
\npartial towards athletes from other sports who had qualified for
\nthe quadrennial event from Sept. 15 to Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
KONI spokesman, Ahmed Solihin, said Olympics training director
\nArie Sudewo, who is also KONI's vice chairman, asked PBSI to
\nadvise its West Java chapter, where the shuttlers were registered
\nfor PON, to find their substitutes.<\/p>\n
\"Only West Java still has its Olympics players registered for
\nPON. KONI has requested that PBSI and its West Java chapter
\nreplace the 19 shuttlers with others. KONI reminded PBSI that we
\nalready had an agreement not to allow Olympics-trained shuttlers
\nto compete in PON,\" he told reporters Friday.<\/p>\n
Ahmed said Arie had called on PBSI to prioritize national
\ninterests above provincial ones. The decision was reached during
\na meeting Thursday with officials from 11 sports organizations
\nwhose athletes were being groomed for the Olympics.<\/p>\n
He also said KONI would make arrangements so the chapter could
\nchange the name of its athletes with the PON organizers.<\/p>\n
West Java has registered Taufik Hidayat, Marlev Mainaky, Ricky
\nAhmad Subagja, Rexy Mainaky, Flandy Limpele, Candra Wijaya, Lydia
\nDjaelawijaya and Elysa Nathanael. They are scheduled to compete
\nin the Olympics.<\/p>\n
Indonesian badminton has quite a long tradition of netting
\ngold medals in Olympics. It earned two golds in 1992 in Barcelona
\nwhen badminton was featured for the first time. In 1996,
\nIndonesian men's doubles pair, Ricky and Rexy, retained
\nsupremacy.<\/p>\n
Ahmed said that Juana and Neta should try their best in the
\ntwo events, as KONI would select one of them to represent the
\ncountry in the Olympics. The Indonesian Tae kwon do Association
\n(TI) groomed Neta in the flyweight division to replace Juana
\nshould she fail to appear in the Olympics due to her injury.<\/p>\n
\"We earlier wanted them to compete in the Korea Open, but TI
\ninsisted that we allow Juana to compete in PON and the Korea
\nOpen. The best between them will be sent to the Olympics,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Ahmed said KONI would allow four women's archers, also being
\ngroomed for the Olympics, to compete in the FITA events and the
\nIndonesian Archery Association (Perpani) events in PON from June
\n19 to June 30.<\/p>\n
\"They will compete in the FITA events in the first four days,
\nthen they have two days off because they do not take part in the
\ntraditional event. They will be back to the field in the last two
\ndays when they will compete in Perpani events,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Four archers who are attending the training program for the
\nOlympics are Hamdiah, Purnama Pandiangan, Lusia Elisabeth
\nSumampouw and I Gusti Ayuputu. (ivy)<\/p>",
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