Archers aim for a rare Indonesian medal in Athens
Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta
Indonesian archer Lockonecko is looking forward to his Olympic challenge for a medal while the majority of the 39-strong athlete contingent will be content to better their own personal bests.
"I have set my personal target that I will be fighting for a place in the final," Lockonecko told reporters here on Tuesday.
The National Sports Council (KONI) officially unveiled on Monday the Indonesian contingent in 14 sports. They will be accompanied by 24 coaches and 12 officials led by chef-de-mission Indra Kartasasmita.
KONI has reiterated its gold medal chances still lie in three sports -- badminton, weightlifting and taekwondo. While other sports like windsurfing, tennis, boxing and archery will have a slim chance of snatching a medal, most of the others are just hoping to participate and do their best.
Instead of hoping for medals, Indonesian contenders in swimming, rowing, canoeing and track and field will simply be pushed toward improving their personal bests.
Indonesia has three swimmers Donny B. Utomo, Albert C. Sutanto and Andy Wibowo, who have just returned from a two-month training camp in Beijing, China.
"Their physical condition is improving. They are stronger, have better stamina and are faster," coach Raja Nasution said. "Yet, we realize that foreign swimmers are definitely far ahead of us. It's really difficult just to get into the semifinal round."
He said he would expect his swimmers to break their own personal bests (PB).
Albert's PB in the men's 200-meter medley is two minutes and six seconds. Andy registered a best mark of 55.35 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly while Donny, a gold medalist at the 2003 Southeast Asian (SEA Games), clocked has a PB 2:04.17 in the 200- meter butterfly.
Indonesia's lone rower Pere Karoba in the same boat as the swimmers, saying that she would try to beat her own mark of 8:01 in the 2,000-meter single scull.
Her coach Dede Rohmat said the top world class scullers had PBs ranging from 7:35 to 7:40.
"It'll be difficult to grab a medal in the Olympics judging from the times," Dede pointed out.
Canoeing athlete Sarce Arroenggar, who will be heading to Athens on a wildcard entry in the women's single 500-meter kayak division, said she was excited to gain experience against with world-class athletes.
Sarce's PB in her specialty is nine seconds off the world record of 1:50.
However, the archery team could expect a medal given the previous performance showed by Lockonecko and female archer Rina Dewi Puspitasari, the 2003 SEA Games gold medalist.
With Lockonecko's best mark being 337 in the individual recurve and Rina's 335, coach Donald Pandiangan sees that his proteges have the potential of breaking into the elite of the sport, whose marks range between 330 and 340.
"Given the scores, I'm certain about their medal prospects. The question is can they perform consistently?" Donald said.
A three-strong Indonesian team came home with an unprecedented silver medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul while Indonesia's first gold medals came four years later in Barcelona thanks to an historic run by the badminton squad.