Forki proposes 10 athletes for 'Indonesia Rises' program

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Karate-do Association (Forki) has proposed ten athletes to be included in the 'Indonesia Rises' program, an association official said over the weekend.

The 'Indonesia Rises' program, unveiled by the National Sports Council (KONI) recently, is aimed at recruiting the one 100 top athletes from various sports so as to mount strong challenges in international tournaments, especially the 2006 Asian Games.

Speaking about medal prospects in Qatar, the host country of 2006 Asian Games, Ahmad Budu, the head of Forki's athlete development division, said that the number of gold medals they would be seeking would greatly depend on how many athletes would be included in the program.

"If KONI includes eight athletes in the program, we have the chance of winning one gold medal. However, if the council accepts all ten as we propose, I am confident we could get two. I guarantee that," Budu told reporters after a Forki meeting on the preparations for the Asian Karate Federation Championship to be held in Chinese Taipei in early February.

The 10 candidates are Syarif, Bambang Maulidin, Christo Mandolu, I Ketut Murti, and Donny Dharmawan in the men's category, and Jenny Zeannet, Telly Melinda, Puspa Meonk, Nurahmi and Kartika Ekawati in the women's.

Bambang and Jenny contributed two of the four gold medals the Indonesian karate squad won at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam last December.

Syarif and Kartika, both 18 years old, are young and have a great deal of potential, with the former winning a silver medal at last year's World Karate Championships in France and the latter being the champion of last year's Batam tournament.

Aside from the athletes, Forki also nominated six coaches to participate in the program: Ahmad Budu, Tono Soe'oed, Syamsudin, Ardi Ganggas, Mohammad Nurzaman and Nurasi Nurasjati.

KONI is hopeful that the Indonesian athletes can improve their Asian Games performance after a dismal performance in the 2002 edition in Busan, South Korea.

Indonesia finished in 14th place in Busan, collecting four gold, seven silver and 12 bronze medals, with Karate contributing one gold and one bronze.

The gold haul was two lower than Indonesia brought home in 1998, when the contingent also added 10 silver and 11 bronze medals to its tally.

Indonesia's best performance in Asian Games' history was in Jakarta in 1962, which was the fourth edition of the quadrennial event, when it finished in second place.