Foreign bikers to compete in Borobudur race
Foreign bikers to compete in Borobudur race
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Teams from Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have
confirmed their participation in the inaugural Borobudur
International Mountain Bike (MTB) Open Championship, organizers
said here on Wednesday.
"Those four countries' teams are set to come. The Chinese
mountain bikers informed us about their possible participation
but they have not contacted us further yet since the Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus became a big issue," Budi
Ariyanto, chairman of the organizing committee, told reporters.
Budi said he met with Agum Gumelar, chairman of the National
Sports Council (KONI), late in the afternoon to report about the
final preparations for the championship.
The committee is also awaiting teams from Japan and South
Korea who may also take part, he said.
The Borobudur Mountain Bike event, which offers a total of
US$12,500 in cash prizes, is scheduled to start on June 15. The
event will be part of the week-long Borobudur festival near the
Borobudur Temple compound in Magelang, Central Java, from June 11
to June 17. The festival is aimed at promoting Borobudur to the
world.
The Borobudur race will be a the cross-country event covering
a distance of 4 kilometers on the Dagi Hills inside the Borobudur
Temple conservation area.
The race will be split into four categories: elite, masters,
seniors and juniors.
Besides the foreign participants, the elite group will feature
six national athletes currently undergoing training workouts in
Malang, East Java, for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games
in Vietnam.
The six local riders are Ferry Sonic, Usman Ali, Amir Mahmud,
Sugianto, Dadi and Kusmawati.
However, the committee, as Budi said, has been encouraging the
local clubs to field their strongest athletes in the elite
competition for the sake of national MTB development.
"Potential mountain bikers will be really tested in the elite
group. If they survive that test, they have a good chance of
being called up to the national team," he said.