An important lesson of the 2002 Busan Asian Games

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia's poor performance at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, proved once again that there is something wrong with Indonesia's sports policy.

Indonesia only managed 14th place, collecting a humble four gold medals, seven silver and 12 bronze.

It was very clear that the 98-strong red-and-white contingent failed to fulfill the target set by the National Sports Council (KONI) of doing better than the Indonesian team at the Bangkok 1998 Asiad with six gold medals, 10 silver and 11 bronze.

The six gold medals were not enough to satisfy President Megawati Soekarnoputri's mission-impossible call to bring home 15 gold medals.

Other Southeast Asian countries fared much better than Indonesia, such as Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The results were worse than the result of the 2001 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games when Indonesia came third after Malaysia and Thailand.

Thailand's 267 athletes managed to grab 14 gold medals, earning them a respectable sixth place, while Malaysia had 212 athletes with six gold medals to take 12th position in the Busan Asiad.

Singapore, which only sent 96 athletes, however, reaped five gold medals to come in at 13th place.

Many sports observers argue that KONI, as well as sports organizations, has neglected to groom young talents and instead relies heavily on veterans.

Men's swimmer Richard Sam Bera and gymnast Jonathan Sianturi are classic examples of how bad the regeneration process is.

The inclusion of veterans instead of young guns originated from KONI's ambition to bring home as many gold medals as possible in every multisport event, from the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games to the Olympic Games.

When the stakes are so high, such as in the Olympics and Asiad, it is perhaps understandable that KONI demands that only athletes with potential be groomed and registered.

But something is missing.

How can the country get well-trained athletes for the Asiad or Olympics if they never get the chance to participate in lower- level sporting competitions, such as the SEA Games?

But there is also another reason for such dwindling sports achievements.

Indonesia tends to forget about developing sports or sending athletes of sports that offer the largest number of gold medals: aquatics of 45 gold medals, shooting 42 gold medals and track and field 43 gold medals.

Indonesia only sent to Busan Asiad one swimmer, no shooters and three track and field athletes. None of them brought home any medals.

Some officials said that financial constraints had made it impossible to send more athletes and that KONI preferred to send athletes who were likely to win medals.

Let's compare how many athletes the following countries sent to the event to take part in the mother of all sports -- track and field. Mongolia sent three athletes, Nepal and Vietnam each had five, the Philippines had a squad of 13 athletes, Singapore eight, Thailand 30, and Malaysia 10.

Meanwhile, newly born country -- East Timor -- managed to send two athletes.

It is clearly visible that even smaller countries -- Nepal and Vietnam -- could send more athletes from the track and field event.

It is unlikely that the money factor played a role, but rather simply negligence.

Other sports -- cycling offers 20 gold medals; wrestling 18 gold medals; gymnastics, judo, sailing and tae kwon do offer 16 gold medals each; and weightlifting 15 gold medals.

Indonesia should have had a good chance of winning gold medals in weightlifting and tae kwon do, but unfortunately most of the time the athletes just simply failed or were bested.

Relying on traditional gold mines such as badminton and tennis will not do any good to improve Indonesia's overall standing as the medals are limited. Both badminton and tennis only offer seven gold medals each.

Not to mention the possibility of unfair calls by linesmen, especially in badminton as shown by a linesman during a match between Indonesia and host South Korea in the men's team event.

Besides, Indonesia can no longer claim domination in these sports as Thailand's mixed doubles pair of Sudhisodhi Khunakorn and Saralee Thounthongkam managed to defeat Nova Widhianto and Vita Marissa 5-11, 11-5, 11-5.

Another reason for Indonesia's constant failure is KONI's failure to detect and monitor the development of foreign athletes, especially those who may pose a threat to Indonesia's chances of winning medals.

Veteran cyclist Tonton Suprapto may be the best example of this after he finished fourth behind the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan and Uzbekistan in the men's 50-kilometer individual.

Tonton could only clock 1:05:01.11 behind Kazakh Andrei Teteriouk with 1:02:11.05, who grabbed the gold medal.

Evgeny Vakker of Kyrgyztan followed with 1:02:58.05 for the silver medal and Sergey Krushevskiy of Uzbekistan who rode 1:03:41.86 for the bronze.

Still, Indonesian cycling officials said the result was not disappointing as Tonton managed to outdo other Asian cyclists, the Central Asian cyclists aside.

"We could not monitor the Central Asian cyclists as they have never taken part in Asian circuits or races. They prepared themselves in European and even world series," said Indonesian cycling manager Sofian Ruzian after the race.

Similarly, Indonesia also failed to monitor the strength of athletes in many other sports, especially the measured sports and martial arts.