Fighting sports tight-lipped on Southeast Asian Games target
JAKARTA (JP): Several officials from the pugilistic sports were adopting a low profile on their targets for the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in September, citing the new regional powerhouse Vietnam as their toughest rival.
Chairman of the Indonesian Taekwondo Association (TI) Suharto told reporters on Thursday that the body only expected to take three of the 16 golds at stake.
"This target is based on our results at the Southeast Asian Taekwondo Union (SEATU) championship last December in Vietnam. Most countries did not deploy their full teams," he said after attending a roll call ceremony in Senayan, Central Jakarta.
"Besides, Vietnam has emerged as a powerful country in the region by sending their taekwondoins to South Korea."
Meanwhile, pencak silat's head coach Puji Handoko said the Indonesian Pencak Silat Association (IPSI) only aimed at bringing home eight to 10 golds from the 28 events being staged.
"Indonesia will not win easily because we will face strong opposition, especially from Vietnam. They showed great progress during last November's World Championship here," he said.
"Our pesilat (fighters) cannot rely on physical fitness alone against the Vietnamese. They must use new techniques and strategies. We can dig out new techniques from our numerous silat schools and styles."
Previously, fighting sports including taekwondo, pencak silat, karate and judo have always been gold mines for Indonesia at the Games. But this dominance has been vanishing following the economic turmoil which hit the country in 1997 and forced sports organizations to develop their athletes based on budget-oriented strategies.
Separately, veteran judoist Kresna Bayu said that the SEA Games were only an intermediate target for him.
"It will be my fifth SEA Games and they will serve only as a preparation for the Asian Games. I want to achieve a better result in the Pusan 2002 Asian Games," he said.
"I have participated in two previous Asiad but failed to obtain satisfactory results."
Kresna, who won two golds in the 1997 Games here, will join the German professional judo league in March. He joins the Etlingen Judo Club one month prior to the Games. Judo was not featured in the 1999 Games in Brunei Darussalam.
KONI chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar called on national athletes and coaches to give their best to restore the nation's pride or else retire from the national training center to avoid wasting time.
"Our participation in the Games is mainly aimed at restoring our tarnished image during this transitional period with such a large number of clashes and violent incidents taking place," Wismoyo said in his speech.
"You must be able to achieve your optimum results at the Games. It's important to avoid further humiliation like what happened in 1999."
The KONI officials in charge of the SEA Games preparations have refused to specify exact medal targets, preferring instead to use phrases like "better achievement" and "avoiding similar humiliation."
Roll call ceremonies were also held in Bandung, Bandar Lampung, Semarang, Surabaya and Bali where the other national training centers are located.
Due to financial problems, KONI has requested that several provincial administrations finance the decentralized centers.
"The central government has yet to announce its commitment to financing the Indonesian contingent to the SEA Games," Wismoyo said.
"That's why athletes and coaches have to work hard because our people directly finance the Games' preparations through the provincial budgets." (nvn)