Athletes' field test results disappoint KONI

Athletes' field test results disappoint KONI

JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI) is
disappointed with the results of physical fitness tests conducted
by six of the sports bodies preparing its athletes for the 20th
Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Brunei Darussalam in August.

Moch. Hindarto, KONI's official in charge of athlete
development, urged officials from the six sports bodies to use
the results of the tests to review their training programs in
order to increase their athletes performances in the next three
months.

"We are not looking for a scapegoat. We will consult with our
experts tomorrow (Friday) about how to boost athletes
performances to enable them to win medals at the Games. We are
responsible for making sure they win medals," he said after
chairing a meeting with the six sports organizations on Thursday.

The six sports bodies which conducted the tests, supervised by
KONI's sports science commission, are basketball, tenpin bowling,
boxing, diving, golf and karate.

Imron ZS, head of KONI's training center and the training
director for the SEA Games, said two of the basketball players
showed excellent fitness, two others were considered poor and the
rest of the players had fair results. All of the female tenpin
bowlers received bad marks in the tests.

He also said all the boxers scored high in the test. The male
divers did very well while the female divers scored good results.
The male golfers earned good marks in the test while the female
golfers had fair results.

Imron added female karatekas got bad marks while male
karatekas had good results.

He blamed the poor results on the training programs.

"Sports organizations must train their athletes before and
after they compete in tournaments. The test results indicate we
always start from zero when we face multievent tournaments like
the SEA Games," he said.

"If you had been preparing the athletes since last December,
they wouldn't get poor results. But we can't just blame the
athletes, let's also look at ourselves," Imron, who accompanied
Hindarto to the meeting, said.

Hindarto called on sports bodies to be more serious in
training their athletes, saying the bodies should put their
athletes on a continual training program to keep prepared for
tournaments. He also urged the bodies to be honest in informing
KONI of their training processes.

He said KONI would conduct another fitness test in six weeks
to reevaluate the athletes condition.

"We also want to check whether the sports bodies told us the
truth about their athletes conditions," he said.

Hindarto said KONI would arrange a special training program to
enable athletes to train themselves when they are not competing
in tournaments.

"Athletes failed to get good marks on the test because they
never exercise. They are enjoying their lives too much. After the
SEA Games, we will socialize the new training program."

"By applying this training program, we hope athletes won't be
too dependent on their coaches. It also will help them form a
champions mentality," he said.

Indonesia will send 448 athletes from 20 sports to the SEA
Games from Aug. 7 to Aug. 12. The Games, which will be hosted by
Brunei for the first time, will offer 235 gold medals in 21
sports. (ivy)