Four Chinese to coach Indonesian wushu squad

JAKARTA (JP): Four Chinese coaches will train local wushu athletes preparing for the 19th SEA Games here next October, an official said.

Antonius Haliman, head of the Indonesian Wushu Association said Wednesday that the four Chinese coaches are Chang Ong-Jun, Kao Fan Poh, Pang Ling Tai and Lio Cen Li.

At first the National Sports Council (KONI) only allowed one coach to train the 26 wushu athletes.

"But we find that two coaches are not enough to train the athletes for the number of wushu events at the SEA Games. We then proposed two more coaches."

KONI then agreed to the request under the condition that the association has to bear the cost of the additional coaches, Antara quoted Antonious as saying.

Wushu is a martial art that originated in China. It is similar to pencak silat.

Antonious said to each Chinese coach the association has to pay a monthly salary of US$3,100 (Rp 6.2 million) including accommodation and meal allowances.

In the coming Jakarta Games, eight events will be contested in the wushu competition. Seven events will be in the taulo contest and another will be freestyle fighting.

As for the availability of funds for the training program, Antonius said so far the association has not received any funds from KONI and at the moment the association has to bear all the costs of the training sessions.

Antonious, however, is confident that the funds will soon be received. "We definitely need the funds for the sake of the training center."

Antonious said there are 26 athletes are currently being groomed. Of these only 13 will be selected for the SEA Games.

Wushu athletes have to follow four steps of training, three in Indonesia (Surabaya, Semarang and Jakarta) and the other a two- month overseas stint, most probably in China.

"We are planning to send our selected athletes to compete in China in May and August next year. We hope they can develop their technical skills," Antonious said.

Commenting on the number of gold medals expected from the wushu competition in the SEA Games, Antonious declined to state the amount. "I am only optimistic that gold medals will come from wushu. One of our athletes, Afraid, grabbed a bronze medal in the freestyle fighting at the Asia tournament in Manila last November," said Antonious. (lnt)