Basketball body grooms 40 players for SEA Games
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Basketball Association plans to groom 20 male and 20 female basketball players for the 19th SEA Games here next year.
Imam Sujudi, the association's executive director, said yesterday that all the athletes are expected to arrive here on Jan. 5.
"Maybe not all the athletes can arrive here on Jan. 5 but we're going to start the training program then to prepare as good a team as possible," Imam said.
All athletes have to undergo physical and psychological tests in the first two weeks.
Sri Sudono Sumarto, the association's secretary-general, said that the 20 athletes in each of the men's and women's squads will be groomed from January to April. In April 15 athletes will picked for the final training squads.
Of the 15, only 12 will be named as members of the country's SEA Games team.
Imam named Irawan Haryono, who took the Aspac team to the Kobatama national basketball league title three times in a row, as the men's team manager.
He also named Russian Nikolai Arkhipov as coach despite the association's plan to replace Arkhipov by an English-speaking coach.
Indonesia's Cecep Firmansyah and Abdulrahman Padang are to be assistant coaches to the men's team.
Vice President Try Sutrisno's son, Isfan Fajar Satrio, is to be the women's team manager.
The team will be coached by Wang Chang You of China, who will be assisted by Sim Kim Lay and Ridwan Prayogo of Indonesia.
Imam agreed that both foreign coaches will have trouble in communicating with their athletes but the association is to provide interpreters during the training program.
The National Sports Council only agreed to hire one foreign coach. But as the association needs two, it is to financing the second one itself.
The national men's squad is scheduled to take part in the third SEABA Championship in Singapore in June, the eighth ABC Champions Cup in Jakarta in July, the Bhinneka Champions Cup in Surakarta, Central Java, in August and the ABC Championship in Saudi Arabia in September as warm-ups for the Games.
"We have anticipated the possibility of taking part in international events before the Games. We hope that our participation can boost the athletes' performance in October," Imam said.
The women's team however will only take part in the second SEABA championship in Thailand in June.
Imam declined to mention the association's target in the Games.
"Let's say we will all try our best. Physically, our players have the same qualities as the Malaysians, the Filipinos and the Thais. I hope we can win the gold. Our target is to do our best," he said. (yan)