Billiards association eyeing two golds at 20th SEA Games

JAKARTA (JP): The All Indonesian Billiards Association (POBSI) has set a target of two golds at the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Brunei Darussalam next month.

POBSI spokesman, Basuki Santoso, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday the golds were expected from the ball nine and ball 15 events.

"We don't know if the golds will come from an individual or a team for the two events. We have Robby Suharli and Alwi in the ball nine and Suwito in the ball 15 events," he said.

"But we still have a key player Rudy Sulaiman, who just finished second in the Melbourne Cup. Rudy is studying for his masters degree in business administration at the Homesglen TAFE Institute in Melbourne."

POBSI was included in the second category sports events -- those which only stand a chance of winning a bronze -- along with basketball, bowling, golf, hockey, shooting, soccer, sepak takraw and squash.

But the National Sports Council (KONI) official in charge of athletes development, Mochammad Hindarto, said POBSI officials could assure KONI their athletes could win two golds at the biennial event from Aug. 7 to Aug. 15.

Basuki said Indonesian nine ball players would face tough challenges from Warren Kiamchuk and Everen Reyes of the Philippines.

"In the pool event, we'll face challenges from Thailand and the Philippines, while in the snooker, Thailand and Malaysia are likely to dominate the events," he said.

Basuki said to overcome the psychological barriers which usually hit national athletes, POBSI had sent its players to compete in the Asian Championships from June 25 to June 27. Kiamchuk was the championships winner. But POBSI was unable to send snooker players for an overseas stint due to financial constraints.

"KONI only allocated a Rp 1.5 million (US$224) budget per athlete for the tryout. The figure is definitely not enough," he said.

POBSI has been preparing 14 players for the Games at the Fire Brigade Training Center in East Jakarta.

Basuki said Robby and Alwi were offered places in the World Pocket Billiard Association invitational meet in London from July 17 to July 25.

"But KONI didn't allow both athletes to go, because they must concentrate on playing in the SEA Games. The time difference between London and Brunei is about seven hours, so they might have had problems adapting to the weather and the situation." (yan)