Asiad flop shows Indonesia's need for major sport reforms
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.