Soeharto to open world archery meet<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto is expected to officially
\nopen the 38th World Archery Championships, the first event of its
\nkind to be held in Indonesia, on Aug. 1.<\/p>\n
\"The president has confirmed his willingness to open the
\ntournament and let the organizers use his name for the
\nchampionships trophy,\" chairman of the Indonesian Archery
\nAssociation, Oetojo Oesman, said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Soeharto also agreed to serve as the patron of the committee
\nof the Aug. 1-6 championships which have been included on the
\nsports agenda marking the country's golden year celebration.<\/p>\n
Oetojo, who is also the Minister of Justice, said that the
\nnational archery governing body has set a major target of winning
\nas many Olympic berths as possible during the one-week event.<\/p>\n
A total of 352 men's and women's archers from 41 countries
\nwill be vying in the Jakarta world event for 108 tickets for the
\n1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The Olympics next year will field
\n180 competitors.<\/p>\n
The race for the remaining Olympic spots will continue in
\nother tournaments abroad. The world archery body, FITA, will also
\naward 18 wild card entries to certain countries.<\/p>\n
Oetojo said Indonesian women's athletes seem to have a better
\nchance of making appearances in Atlanta than their male
\ncounterparts. \"We are focusing on short-distance events,\" Oetojo
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Nurfitriyana and Purnama Pandiangan, members of the national
\ntrio team which earned Indonesia its first Olympic silver in
\n1986, line up the national team made up of 10 men's and 10
\nwomen's archers for the world meet.<\/p>\n
They will have their last testing ground in the national
\nchampionships to be held here from June 13 through 18. Australia
\nand China will take part in the national event in order to get
\nused to the venue.<\/p>\n
The world championships will for the first time contest the
\ncompound event in addition to the traditional, manual recurving
\nevent. \"We don't expect too much from this new event,\" said
\nOetojo.<\/p>\n
The new event requires archers to use mechanical tools which
\nenable the arrow to move twice as fast and to reach speeds of up
\nto 300 feet per second.<\/p>\n
Oetojo said the organizing committee desperately needs to
\nraise funds through sponsorships. \"We hope to collect between 60
\nand 70 percent of the estimated budget of Rp 2 billion
\n(US$900,000) from private companies,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He added that the organizers have so far managed only to gain
\none third of the estimated budget.<\/p>\n
\"We probably wasted some weeks when we conducted the election
\nof our new top officials recently,\" Oetojo said. He promised,
\nhowever, to complete the fund raising program on time.<\/p>\n
A two-day FITA congress will follow the world championships,
\nwith the congressmen electing some of FITA leadership board
\nmembers. (amd)<\/p>",
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