Athletes receive cash bonuses from ministers
JAKARTA (JP): The government has divided a Rp 358 million (US47,735) cash bonus among the country's medalists from the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok.
On Tuesday, State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Agung Laksono and Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and Poverty Eradication Haryono Suyono presented the bonus for six gold medalists, 10 silver medalists, 11 bronze medalists and coaches.
Gold medalists were the Indonesian men's badminton team and men's doubles pairing of Ricky Ahmad Subagja and Rexy Mainaky, Yayuk Basuki (women's tennis singles), Oka Sulaksana (men's windsurfing), Supriati Sutono (women's 5,000 meters track) and Arief Taufan Syamsudin (men's karate).
Individual gold medalists received Rp 15 million each. Ricky and Rexy were awarded Rp 11.5 million each and members of the men's badminton team received Rp 5 million each.
Each silver medalist took home Rp 8 million and each bronze medalist Rp 5 million. Twenty-nine coaches were awarded Rp 2 million each.
Agung expressed satisfaction with the athletes' achievements in the Asiad, held from Dec. 6 to Dec. 20.
"Their performance was much better than four years ago when we only won three golds from badminton. Now we have won six golds from five sports. However, our ranking among the participating countries is still out of the top 10," he said after presenting the bonus.
"I think our athletes still need to perform optimally. In the future we expect them to win a competition by setting a new record, either Asian or world record."
Some of the athletes expressed appreciation for the bonuses.
"I'm very thankful to the government who tried hard to provide bonuses during the economic crisis," said women's tennis player Wynne Prakusya.
"This is great. I'll save the bonus to pay for my study," said Sinta Berliana Heru, who won a silver in taekwondo.
Supriati said her money would go to her parents.
"I have almost everything, a house, a family. The money will be used to help my parents."
Olympics
Supriati, probably Indonesia's most surprising gold medalist, said she wanted to qualify for the 2000 Olympics.
"I still have no plans about competing in which events next year, but I hope I can qualify for the Olympics. I plan to retire after 2000 to have children," said Supriati, an Army sergeant.
She also hoped the Indonesian Amateur Athletics Association (PASI) could provide an excellent training partner.
"I'll start my training on Jan. 4 but I hope PASI can give me a qualified training partner, whose best time is the same as me," she said. "It's not that I'm unthankful to my partner Ridwan, but if I want to do better, I have to get a better partner."
Supriati, who clocked 15 minutes 54.45 seconds in the Asiad, is aiming to run under 15 minutes.
"If I want to compete in the Olympics, I must be able to set a best of less than 15 minutes. It's not easy, I need to work harder."
Separately, the Indonesian Weightlifting, Powerlifting and Bodybuilding Association's secretary-general, Djoko Pramono, said that all lifters must start their training on Jan. 1.
"We'll prepare them for the World Championships, which is also the qualifying round for the Olympics, in Greece in November."
Indonesia, which sent five lifters to the Asiad, only won one bronze from Sri Indriyani.
"We had bad luck in the Asiad but we could learn something. We know our rival strengths for the Olympics. I believe those lifters are also prepared for the 2000 Games."
Meanwhile, windsurfing coach Iskandar Sitompul was optimistic Oka would qualify for the Olympics.
"Oka has to compete in six major tournaments next year to qualify for the Olympics." The events are in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, France and Denmark.
"Oka has a great talent and we believe he will cruise to the Olympics," Iskandar said. (yan)