Cycling body to start training next month
Cycling body to start training next month
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In a bid to meet the set target of winning two cycling gold
medals at the Asian Games next year, the Indonesian Cycling
Association (ISSI) will begin centralized training for its
athletes in November, two months ahead of the official schedule
set by the National Sports Council (KONI).
"We have to start the training center earlier as we hope to
boost both the endurance and strength of our cyclists and help
them reach their best," ISSI vice secretary-general Sofian Ruzian
told reporters on Wednesday.
"Based on our recent achievements, we have a great chance of
winning two gold medals in the women's team pursuit and men's
downhill. We are also expecting silver and bronze medals in
several sprint events," he added.
Clocking 3:59, the Indonesian women's team pursuit finished
second in the 2001 Asian Cycling Championships behind host
Chinese Taipei who clocked 3:58.
Sugianto Setiawan will be Indonesia's best bet in the men's
downhill, thanks to his victory in the 2001 Asian Mountain Bike
Championships in Thailand.
KONI has summoned officials from 20 sports organizations to
discuss the preparations for the Asian Games. Apart from the
ISSI, the sports bodies are archery, badminton, beach volleyball,
pool, bodybuilding, boxing, canoeing, gymnastics, judo, karate,
rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, tae kwon do, tennis, track
and field, weightlifting and wushu.
Separately, coach Endang Subagyo said that training would be
divided into four phases.
"We will start training in the center with the basic training
phase lasting four months. The goal here is to restore the
cyclists' physical fitness," he said.
"We will then improve the cyclists' endurance and strength for
about three months. During these two phases, the cyclists will
take part in long-distance tournaments which require endurance
and strength."
The third one is the specific phase, also covering three
months, in which cyclists will be involved more in participating
in tournaments, especially the sprint cyclists.
"In the fourth phase, all cyclists will take part in more
tournaments until eight weeks before the Asian Games. During the
eight-week cooling down period, we will just give them high
intensity training as the final preparation," said Endang.
Sofian, however, warned that the ISSI would set a time limit
for all cyclists before allowing them to compete in the Asiad.
Cyclists contributed 11 gold medals for the national team at
the Kuala Lumpur 2001 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games last month.