Biennial Arafura Games still needs improvement

DARWIN, Australia (JP): The eight-day biennial Arafura Games are widely known by the host Northern Territorians as The Arafura Sports Festival.

They call it this because its main aim is to build relationships and winning comes second.

The Games cannot even be compared to the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

In The Arafura Games some sports are not observed by representatives of their international organizations.

Tuesday's badminton team final was an example of this.

Indonesia faced China's Haikou in an eight-match final. Organizers scheduled two men's and two women's finals, one men's doubles, one women's doubles and two mixed doubles.

As soon as Indonesia led 5-1, Haikou preferred not to continue the match and gave a walkover win to Indonesia.

Organizers allowed it because there were no International Badminton Federation representatives.

Since badminton is not a popular sport here, organizers could not provide many linesmen. The only way was to ask a player of each competing country to be linesmen for other team.

This system sometimes caused controversy. When Indonesian women's doubles player Nonong DZ was the linesmen for compatriot Yuli Marfuah. Nonong called 'out' for Yuli's return backhand at match point although it was in.

Yuli could only grumbled to her senior after the match and Nonong could only say "Sorry, Yuli. I didn't mean it."

The press also had trouble using the media center.

The phone lines were only for local calls and international calls have to go through operators which caused problems for reporters, who use modems to send their news.

It is quicker to get results from each venue than from the media center, which is in the Marrara Sports Complex about 20 kilometers out of the city.

Reporters have trouble finding taxis or shuttle buses back to their hotels after 9 p.m.

In the SEA Games, athletes compete for one reason: to win many golds as possible.

But in the Arafura Games, competitors represent clubs, cities, provinces or forces like The Australian Defense Forces, the New Zealand Air Force, the Haikou city, the Malaysian province of Sabah and others.

They also aim to win, but it is not everything.

It is not as competitive as the SEA Games and participants enjoy being able to mingle with other countries' athletes.

Some athletes exchanged gifts like Indonesian swimmer Kevin Rosa Nasution who swapped her Indonesia bag for a Northern Territory swimmer's bag.

"Wow, it's too small," she said, expressing her surprise and joy.

Indra Djati Sidi said Monday that the Arafura Games participants must maintain the games' unique characteristics.

Northern Territorians showed their excitement during the Games by strongly supporting their athletes.

Could Jakartans support Indonesia's athletes and accept losses in sport? There is surely something to learn from the Northern Territorians. (yan)