Aprilia, Bayu fight for Olympic tickets

JAKARTA (JP): Two national judokas, Aprilia Marzuki and Kresna Bayu, will fight for two tickets to the 2000 Olympic Games in the World Judo Championships in England in October.

Aji Kusumantri, the deputy secretary-general of the Indonesian Judo Association (PJSI), said that Aprilia and Bayu should enter the top eight to be allowed to compete in the Olympics in Sydney.

Both judokas finished fifth during the Asian Judo Championship last June.

Fourteen junior judokas will also compete in the two-day Southeast Asian (SEA) Judo Championships in Singapore. The championships also served as a substitute competition for the 1999 SEA Games in Brunei Darussalam last month where judo was not featured.

The championships, starting on Saturday, will be attended by Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Aji said Indonesia was targeting the overall title to retain domination in the region and also to observe opponents strength. (ivy)