Asiad flop shows Indonesia's need for major sport reforms
A modest ending in the Asian Games in Hiroshima depicts a likely major setback in national sports development, but some sporting fields did make encouraging progress. The Jakarta Post sports reporters Arief Suryobuwono, Dwiatmanta and Robert Soelistyo take a close look at this issue in the following stories.
JAKARTA (JP): The Asian Games in Hiroshima were just another sports ground proving that Indonesia has yet to gain ground in the international sports scene, except, of course, for badminton.
A few months after the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup memorable double, badminton salvaged Indonesia's pride in the 12th Asiad in October. But the national shuttlers' three gold medals, the only golds scooped by the 150-strong Indonesian team, failed to live up to expectations to finish even among top ten in the Oct. 2-16 sports meet.
For the first time in Indonesia's 30-year affiliation with Asiad, the national squad lay at 11th place with a paltry collection of three gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze medals. It was more than an upset ending since Malaysia, which has never come close to dethroning Indonesia in the Southeast Asian (SEA) level, managed to finish two spots ahead.
The strongest sport powerhouse, China, doused the fires of other Asian countries with a haul of 137 gold, 92 silver and 60 bronze medals. But their supremacy was tainted by the most flagrant use of drugs. China's seven swimmers, a hammer thrower, a cyclist and two canoeists all tested positive for the same steroid.
The drug scandal handed host Japan six golds, to surpass previous second finisher, South Korea.
Such a modest feat in Asiad put the national sport council in hot water. Critics said the council was inconsistent in picking sports with great potential to win medals at the quadrennial event.
Taking part in 23 events, Indonesia could not manage any medals in 17 sports, including those which offered a bucketful of medals such as swimming and track and field.
Needless to say Indonesia's triumphant Thomas Cup team was too much for the rest of the Asian badminton playing countries. Joko Suprianto and company capped their perfect run by thrashing South Korea 5-0 in the men's team final.
Susi Susanti won her game, but it looked meaningless when the South Korean women's team capitalized on the lack of self- confidence in their Indonesian rivals for a 4-1 final win.
All England men's singles title holder Hariyanto Arbi secured Indonesia's second gold after beating compatriot Joko, before world men's doubles number one Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky took the other top honor.
Susi, however, spoiled the celebration. An upset loss to Japan's Hizako Mitsui made the Asian Games gold medal the only laurel Susi has not won.
Back on the national scene boxing made a bid for sweetening over the bitter conditions in other events.
Romping home with four gold medals in the President's Cup Amateur International Championships was good enough for the Indonesian boxers, which enabled them to reclaim the overall title it won in 1976, the inauguration of the annual tournament.
The four golds came from Pino Bahari, who won the middleweight division title, Nemo Bahari (featherweight), Nelson Oil (flyweight) and Hermensen Ballo (light flyweight).
Dope
Doping scandals which have been tainting sports the world over, also hit Indonesia when young West Java swimmer Catherine Surya, woman cyclist Alvi Dwiningrum, male cyclists Ronny Yahya, Dadang Haris and M. Basri all from Yogyakarta, were found guilty of using steroids during the National Sports Games (PON).
At the PON in Jakarta, 1993, Catherine swept seven gold and two silver medals. The National Sports Council only announced the findings of testing early this year.
The findings mean shame for Indonesia but at the same time we have to accept the ugly reality that some of our top athletes are being disqualified because of their use of prohibited performance enhancing substances.
Tennis
Forget the end of Indonesia's long-tradition of winning Asiad tennis gold medals at Hiroshima.
Tennis enthusiasts could at least smile as they spotted world- class players hanging around here. They are offered a more enticing New Year package in early January with the arrival of tennis great Martina Navratilova, and other world championship players, for the two-week Indonesian Women's Open and Men's Open tennis gala show.
Michael Chang's second straight win at the Indonesia Men's Open in February this year served as the appetizer for a year of tennis extravaganza.
The beauty of Gabriela Sabatini captivated the public's attention in mid-September when the Argentinean played Yayuk Basuki in two exhibition matches at the fully-packed Kemayoran tennis center. They tied at 1-1.
A week later, Switzerland's Marc Rosset and Jakob Hlasek delighted local fans with a 4-1 overpowering of Benny Wijaya and company in their Davis Cup battle at the Senayan tennis stadium.
To cap off the long tennis agenda, the stadium staged the US$1.3 million ATP World Doubles finals, the most lucrative championships ever held here.
Unfortunately, lackluster promotion, and to some extent the costly ticket prices, left the world's eight best teams grumbling about the small number of attending spectators.
Sweden's Davis Cup heroes Jan Apell and Jonas Bjorkman turned the tables. Their final five-set victory over Australia's Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde was as illustrious as their deciding win in Sweden's 4-1 win over host Russia in the Davis Cup final early this month.
Basketball
This year marked the revival of the National Basketball League which, for the first time in its 12-year history, featured imported players.
The foreign cagers, most of whom are American, proved effective in luring a large number of spectators. Sold out and filled-beyond-capacity halls served as a bait for more sponsorship and proved that "the cage sport" is now as saleable as tennis or soccer.
"Now sponsors must count us in," Yaksono Soerodjo, the league's chairman, said. Lack of sponsors cost the league some years of slumber in the past.
The new mood of enthusiasm climaxed when Bandung's Hadtex turned the tables with a dramatic 57-54 win over defending champion Aspac of Jakarta to capture the honors.
Aspac had been the former favorite for its unbeaten record after three months of round-robin competition which pitted 11 clubs.
Yaksono said the league will keep letting its teams hire imported cagers "until the public eventually values our local cagers the same way they value imported cagers."
As of next year a women's basketball league and National Basketball Day on Oct. 23, when the national basketball league was founded, will be introduced, but the league's existing format will be maintained, Yaksono said.
Soccer
National soccer carved out another milestone this year when the All Indonesia Football Association set out a new league which unifies semi-professional clubs and amateur teams.
The league, officially named Liga Dunhill, after the cigarette company Dunhill which provided US$2 million of sponsorship, was officially opened by Vice President Try Sutrisno on Nov. 27.
The premier division league comprises of 17 clubs, which formerly joined the semi-professional league and 17 amateur squads, previously belonging to the intercity league. They are split into the East and West divisions and feature a total of 599 matches in 28 cities throughout Indonesia.
Commenting on the controversy over the obvious different status among the clubs, the football association's chairman Azwar Anas said that "the league must, at any rate, run first", hoping that the amateur teams will gradually turn pro.
A month after the kick-off, the professional squads have taken the lead over their amateur rivals, although the latter managed some surprising wins.
To add zest to the newly launched league, the inclusion of imported booters within competing teams was revived. The policy was introduced in 1979 by the former football association's chairman, and Jakarta governor, Ali Sadikin. The football association banned them in the late 1980s, saying they adversely affected the local talent.
Unfortunately, hooliganism tainted the league. The association banned, on Dec. 20, Indra Kurniawan of Persiba Balikpapan and Musfadil of Pupuk Kaltim for two years each for brawling during their Nov. 27 game in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.
In Gresik, East Java, hundreds of spectators caused a mass brawl after their home team fell 0-2 to visiting Barito Putra.
This year also saw how the football association suffered a bitter slap when its junior team, trained by Sampdoria in Italy for the association's ambitious target of entering the 2002 World Cup finals, crashed out of the 29th Asian Under-19 Championship finals in September, following a 0-4 humiliation by eventual champion Syria.
However, a month later a modest under-15 soccer team gave consolation. They won the 23rd Asian student soccer championship by beating strong team China 2-0 on Oct. 30.
The demise of national soccer great Soetjipto Soentoro, aged 53, on Nov. 12 was another bitter blow for Indonesian soccer.
Chess
To Indonesia was born this year a new grand master, Edhi Handoko, and two new international masters, Nathanael Situru and Salor Sitanggang.
The three chess wizards were in an Utut Adianto-led team which gave Indonesia an encouraging year-end prize. They finished 28th after two weeks of struggling at the 124-field Olympics of Chess in Moscow, 12 places better than their previous standing.
In contrast, the women's team dropped from 18 to 24, out of 81 countries.
At any rate, this was a good result, given that Indonesia had to compete against at least 14 powerful teams originating from former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
A draw with China's women's world champion GM Xu Jun in the final round of the international meet here in April gave Edhi the eight points he needed to take the title he had been dreaming of for 12 years. Edhi's elo rating increased to 2,510.
Indonesia now has four Grand Masters including Herman Suradiraja (2,300), Ardiansyah (2,425) and Indonesia number one Utut (2,590).
This year also saw how Utut, in a bid to become the first Indonesian to reach an elo rating of 2,600, challenged and fell 1-3 to American Grand Master Yasser Seirawan in a duel match sanctioned by the world chess body FIDE in Jakarta.
Bridge
The year was rosy for Indonesian bridge. Indonesia beat defending champion The Netherlands 133-116 in the Bridge Olympics in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A., on Sept. 25 and had its world standing rocket from 64th to ninth.
In the U.S. Cup Open Foursome, another tournament held in Albuquerque in the same month, Indonesia finished second behind the U.S., and a month later the veteran pair of Hengky Lasut and Eddy Manoppo won the Open Pair title of the 16th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Interclub Bridge Championships in Genting Highland, Malaysia.
Encouraged, the Indonesian Bridge Association hired world- class Canadian coach Erick Kokish at a cost of US$80,000 for a two-week stint from Dec. 7-21 to prepare the promising team for the Far East Bridge Federation Championship in Perth, Australia, next year.
Winning the Far East zone bridge championship will earn Indonesia a place in the Bermuda Bowl World Bridge Open Pair Championship in Beijing, China, in October next year.
Automotive
The Rally of Indonesia in Medan, North Sumatra, in June highlighted automotive sports for both its world-class entrants and challenging ground.
Sweden's pair, Kenneth Eriksson and Staffan Parmander, won the race, which was the opening leg of the Asia Pacific Rally Championships series, after three days of grueling rivalry against New Zealand's defending champion team of Possum Bourne and Tony Sircombe.
Overseas rallyists prevailed over the 400-kilometer rally, but four local drivers managed to preserve Indonesia's honor by finishing in the top 10. Only 25 cars, out of the original 48 flagged off, reached the finish.
Foreigners also stood head and shoulder against local talents in the motocross championships series this year, while Indonesia is bidding a world championship race next year.