Archery flop adds to RI's Olympic agony

Archery flop adds to RI's Olympic agony

ATLANTA, Georgia (Agencies): Indonesia continued its Olympic
off-target showing with the first-round, 208-246 defeat of its
women's archery team to Ukraine here on Friday.

Indonesia had good reason to place high hopes in the team
which earned a bronze medal at the 38th world archery
championships in Jakarta last year. Moreover, a member of the
team was in the 1988 squad which won the silver medal at the
Seoul Olympics.

Yet, the hope proved to be exaggerated. Hamdiah, who was the
first to fire arrows, performed poorly. Her first three shots
from the 70-meter distance resulted in a 5, a 5 and an 8. The
bull's eye rates a 10.

Hamdiah later said, "I am out of control." Coach Daniel
Lumalesil said that Hamdiah's shaky start strongly motivated her
Ukrainian opponents. A disappointed Lumalesil added that this was
the worst scores Hamdiah has ever had and that it was beyond his
expectations because technically speaking, his team was by no
means below the Ukrainians. On various occasions during the
practice sessions his team performed better than Ukraine, he
added.

Lumalesil said he was ready to take the blame for the failure.
"I must be blamed. I failed to improve her mental readiness."

After the blunder, Hamdiah regained her form. Her teammates,
Dahliana and Nurfitriyana, who took the next turns, also
performed well. But it did nothing to reduce the wide margin the
Ukrainians enjoyed because Hamdiah's errors.

The defeat serves as the final blow to the 41-strong
Indonesian Olympic contingent. It still has a runner, Ethel
Hudson, in the men's marathon today, but Indonesia doesn't expect
too much from the SEA Games silver medalist.

The contingent, which is scheduled to arrive home on
Wednesday, had earlier been demoralized by the unexpected defeat
of its world top shuttlers Susi Susanti, Joko Suprianto,
Hariyanto Arbi and Alan Budikusuma. They all flopped en route to
the semifinals.

The dismal results left Indonesia with only one gold, one
silver and two bronze medals during the 17-day Summer Games,
which end today. Indonesia tallied the same number of silver and
bronze medals but won two golds at the Barcelona Olympics in
1992. Indonesia had set a target of winning at least two golds
this year.

National Sports Council chief Wismoyo Arismunandar
acknowledged that Indonesia has failed to reach its Olympic
target. However, rather than look for a scapegoat, Wismoyo said
that the failure was merely God's will.

"We have done our best. If the results are like this, we can't
do anything because everything is regulated by God. Let's not be
dismayed with this failure," Wismoyo said.

Wismoyo added that he felt proud of Indonesian athletes who
had struggled hard and gave their best even though they failed.

The Indonesian Olympic contingent will leave Atlanta on Monday
and is expected to arrive in Jakarta on Wednesday. Aribinuko, an
official with the contingent, said that tennis queen Yayuk
Basuki, windsurfer Oka Sulaksana and the Indonesian beach
volleyball teams would not be in the contingent upon arrival,
Antara reported.

Aribinuko said Yayuk will play a tournament in Canada, which
starts Monday, Oka will go to Singapore for a windsurfing
championship and the Indonesian beach volleyball teams went to
Japan on July 28 for an international tournament.