Gold medalists to get Rp 1b awards

JAKARTA (JP): Companies are catching Olympic fever, pledging money to sponsor the Indonesian contingent at the quadrennial event.

With seven weeks to the Olympics, the National Sports Council (KONI) managed to entice PT Bintang Toedjoe, the producer of the isotonic drink Extra Joss, to sign a memorandum of understanding to provide Rp 1 billion (US$111,100) cash bonuses for gold medalists.

"Extra Joss aims to provide a Rp 1 billion cash bonus for every gold medal because I haven't seen any local companies interested in sponsoring sports. All are multinational companies," said Simon Jonatan, the assistant marketing director of PT Bintang Toedjoe, at a media conference following KONI's sports-business gathering on Monday.

Should no Indonesian athlete win a gold medal, half of the bonus amount will be given to silver and bronze medalists while the other half will go toward sports development in the country.

KONI has received Rp 4.2 billion from the government, Rp 2 billion from Gelora Senayan, Rp 1.6 billion from McDonald's Indonesia and US$100,000 from PT Samsung Electronics Indonesia to support the country's Olympic team.

At the 1996 Olympics, KONI and Tugu Pratama insurance provided a bonus of Rp 1 billion in life insurance to gold medalists Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky.

The head of KONI's sports-business and industry commission, Fritz E. Simanjuntak, said the purpose of Monday's gathering was to encourage businesspeople to pay more attention to sports development in the country.

During the gathering, KONI also launched its official website, www://koni.org.id, which is maintained by Plasmedia.

KONI also unveiled its public service advertisement aimed at encouraging people to support the national contingent at the Olympics in Sydney in September. The advertisement will be broadcast on RCTI, which holds the local broadcast rights for the Olympics.

Also attending the event was Susy Susanti and Alan Budikusuma, who both won gold medals at the 1992 Olympics. Susy received a certificate from the International Olympics Committee honoring her achievements in the cause of women's and sports development. (yan)