17 countries set to take part in Karate's Indonesia Open

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Seventeen countries have confirmed that they will take part in the next month's Indonesia Open Karate Tournament, where host Indonesia will field two teams, the organizing committee said on Wednesday.

Committee chairman Hermawan Sulistyo said invitations had been sent to 72 countries, 65 of which had responded. But only 17 countries have officially verified their participation in the tournament.

Those confirming their arrival are Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Hong Kong, Iran, Jordan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

"I hope that Japan will be able to send its athletes to the tournament," Hermawan, who heads the research and development department at the Indonesian Karate-do Association (Forki), said of the chance that athletes from the sport's home country would participate.

He said most of the participating countries would come to the tournament with teams young and veteran athletes.

The Indonesia Open will run for three days starting on June 4 at the Bung Karno Indoor Tennis Stadium.

Indonesia will compete with two teams, called the Buffalo and the Tiger.

The Buffalo team, led by manager Tono Soeud and head coach Willem Mantiri, will be composed of young and veteran athletes, the latter currently preparing for the 2002 Asian Games in South Korea.

The Tiger squad, to be guided by manager Ahmad Budu and head coach Zulkarnaen Purba, will be made up of the karatekas who stole the spotlight at the Kasad Cup tournament in Bandung earlier this month.

According to a tentative lineup given to The Jakarta Post, the Buffalo team was to have included Jenny Zeanette and Yulianti Syafrudin.

But the committee announced that the two women karatekas would instead be taking part in the Ladies Open in France, which is being held at the same time as the Indonesia Open.

No replacements for the two have yet to be announced.

The Indonesia Open will include 19 events -- 15 individual ones and four team. According to Hermawan, who is also a political analyst, Indonesia has a realistic chance of winning the men's team kumite.