Five sports top priority for Olympics
JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI) picked five sports on Thursday as priorities for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
KONI chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar said badminton, boxing, taekwondo, weightlifting and windsurfing would be the focus of training efforts, based on the national athletes' performances during the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok last month.
"National federations of the sports in question must from now on work hard to prepare their athletes for the Olympics and send them to as many international competitions as possible," Wismoyo said after an Asian Games evaluation meeting.
"The athletes also need adequate overseas training stints," he added.
Only badminton has yielded the country gold medals since it first competed in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki.
Indonesia won two golds in badminton, a gold apiece in taekwondo, windsurfing, track and field and karate at the last Asian Games. Boxing provided two silvers and weightlifting one bronze.
Although women's long-distance runner Supriati Sutono and men's karateka Arief Taufan Syamsuddin triumphed at the Asiad, Wismoyo said "their chances to beat European and American opposition at the Olympics are slim". Supriati's winning time in the 5,000 meters was more than a minute off the world record.
Secretary-general of the Indonesian Taekwondo Association, Ahmad Zarkasih, said two athletes would be groomed for the Olympics. They are women's flyweight Juana Wangsa Putri and her male counterpart Satrio Rahardani, bronze and silver medalists in Bangkok respectively.
Ahmad said the rest of the Asian Games veterans would focus on the 20th Southeast Asian Games in Brunei Darussalam in August.
Training programs for both the Olympics and Brunei will start early next month.
Juana and Satrio are scheduled to compete in the world Olympics qualifying tournament in Croatia in June. They will also have chances to secure Olympic berths at the Asian Olympics qualification in the Philippines in September.
Weightlifting
The Indonesian Weightlifting, Powerlifting and Bodybuilding Association's secretary-general, Djoko Pramono, said national lifters would resume their training here and in Lampung early next month.
The program was postponed from its originally scheduled Jan. 1 after the association failed to provide funding. Djoko said the training program had cost the association Rp 6.25 million (US$780) monthly so far.
"We have a great chance in the women's 48kg and 53kg divisions. We can win a silver or a bronze," Djoko predicted for the 2000 Olympics.
Djoko said an underweight problem prevented his charges from landing a gold in Bangkok.
He said gold medal hopeful Sri Indriyani was 1.2 kilograms lighter than the ideal weight to compete in the 48kg class at the Asiad. She finished third.
"But our coaches have learned from the Asian Games' failure. We still have 18 months to improve our lifters' form for the Olympics," Djoko said.
It also expects to win more than one gold from its badminton players in the 2000 Summer Games, with an official rating the country's best chances in the men's doubles, mixed doubles and men's singles.
The Badminton Association of Indonesia's athletes development chief Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar said defending Olympic men's doubles champions Rexy Mainaky and Ricky Subagja remain strong contenders for the top honors despite their age. Rexy will be 32 and Ricky 28 when they defend their title. (yan)