Archery coach upset with postponed training
Archery coach upset with postponed training
JAKARTA (JP): The national archery team's head coach Lee Jae-
hyun said on Monday he did not expect his trainees to win berths
at the 2000 Olympic Games after the Indonesian Archery
Association decided to postpone the centralized training session
for one month to March.
The South Korean coach said his archers would now have just
four and a half months to prepare themselves for the World
Championships, which also serve as a qualifying tournament for
the Olympics.
"It's unlikely that they will reach their top form in time for
the World Championships. I cannot guarantee that they can qualify
for the Olympics," Lee said.
Lee was in charge of the national team for the Asian Games in
Bangkok last year. Indonesia, fielding eight women's and men's
archers, came home empty-handed.
Despite the disappointing outcome in Bangkok, the national
archery body has extended Lee's contract until at least the world
meet which will take place in Riom, France. He will have his term
extended if Indonesian archers qualify for the Olympics.
The contract costs the association US$2,500 per month for
Lee's salary.
Indonesia will send its women's team to the world meet in
Riom, France from July 22 to July 26. It then will don national
colors at the Asian Championships in Beijing from Sept. 1 to
Sept. 5.
The centralized training program was originally scheduled to
start early this month.
Chairman of the archery body Hayono Isman said after his
induction ceremony on Monday that he has decided to delay
training on account of nontechnical matters.
"There are still some problems we haven't settled. I just want
to make sure that the training program will run untroubled,"
Hayono said.
The biggest problem was probably the absence of leave permits
from the archers' respective offices, according to Hayono.
Regular backbones Nurfitriyana Saiman Lantang, Kusuma Wardani,
Rosena Gelanteh, Hamdiah, Dwi Purwanti and young archers Lusia
Elizabeth and Ajeng Wulan have been summoned to attend the
training program.
Hayono defended his choice of veterans, saying that young
archers had yet to reach the same standards as their seniors.
"In archery, age is not proven a disadvantage. Under the
current competition system, archers aged between 30 and 35 years
old are in the best form," he said.
Indonesia has always qualified for the Olympics since taking a
silver in the 1988 Summer Games in Sydney, its first medal in the
world's biggest sports festival. (yan)