Better mental smarts the goal of Chinese training

Moch. N. Kurniawan The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The goal will be to sharpen mental toughness in tight matchplay situations and upgrade skills as the Table Tennis Association of Indonesia (PTMSI) sends 12 athletes to train in Guangdong, southern China.

"In China, we hope they will learn to play well at critical points and polish their skills, which are not yet at world class level," PTMSI secretary-general Farid Rahman said on Wednesday ahead of the athletes' departure on Thursday.

The players taking part in the Chinese training are David Jacobs, Yon Mardiyono, Muhammad Hussein, Agus Fredi Pramono, Kunkun Sisdo Mubarat and Reno Handoyo from the men's division, and Ceria Nilasari, Istiyani Lindawati, Christine Ferliana, Santi Fibriyanti, Ruri Raung and Silir Rovani among the women.

Hussein, Reno, Silir and Christine will leave for Guangdong from Lunen, Germany, where they are training currently, while the rest will depart from Jakarta.

Farid said that one male and one female athlete would be removed from the program in mid-July, leaving 10 athletes to train in China until Nov. 24.

"Those 10 athletes will be the Southeast Asia (SEA) Games team," he said.

Table tennis is one of six sports whose athletes will be trained in Guangdong in a stepped-up effort to secure medals at the 2005 SEA Games, to be held from Nov. 27 to Dec. 5 in Manila.

The other sports are fencing, wrestling, archery, shooting and wushu. They will leave on a staggered schedule.

The thriving province of Guangdong is considered a major athlete training center in China, including in table tennis. Ma Lin, the 2004 Olympic men's doubles champions with Chen Qi, is from Guangdong.

Farid said that aside from their training program in China, the players would participate in the Asian Table Tennis Championship in South Korea in August.

He also said that PTMSI had allocated a Rp 250 million bonus for each gold medal winner in this year's SEA Games.