Five RI athletes to Paralympics

Five RI athletes to Paralympics

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will send five athletes -- Imam
Kuncoro, Aspen Tarihorum, Aris Kadarisman, Harsono and Hendri
Nadi competing in track and field and weightlifting -- to the
Paralympic Games in Sydney from Oct. 14 to Oct. 30.

The Paralympic Sports Association (BPOC) chairman, Syamsul
Masri, said Monday that Indonesia had been preparing nine out of
45 athletes since July 20 in Bandung but due to the limited
accreditation given by the International Olympic Committee (IOC),
it could only send five athletes.

"In reality, we only got a quota of three but we managed to
persuade them to give us five," said BPOC vice chairman Sales
Ismail, as quoted by Antara.

Indonesia has never competed in the qualification round,
therefore it only has a limited number of berths. (yan)