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)