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)