Biennial Arafura Games still needs improvement

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)