Government blamed for Indonesia's poor performance in sports events

JAKARTA (JP): The government's lack of commitment to support sports in the country has been blamed as the main reason for Indonesia's poor performance in international events in the last few years.

Thomas Rosendich, director of the United States Sports Academy (USSA), told reporters on Wednesday after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Sports Council (KONI) that the government showed little attention to sports compared to the situation in the 1960s.

Rosendich, who coached national track and field athletes to prepare for the 1962 Asian Games here, said former president Soekarno had a strong commitment to boost Indonesia's performance in sports events.

Soekarno built the Senayan sports complex to host the 1962 Asiad in which Indonesia was the runner up, its best result in the Asian regional event.

Last year, Indonesia only managed to finish in 11th position by taking home six gold medals. One of the six golds came from the track after 36 years in waiting.

"Based on quality, Indonesian athletes in the 1960s and recently are the same. What is different is the government's commitment to sports development," said the 67-year-old former marine colonel.

"I'm not sure the current government has as strong a commitment as Soekarno did in the past," he said.

"In 1962, the government built the Senayan complex which cost millions of dollars to show their support to sports. The government also hired world-class coaches from the United States and (former) East Germany," said Rosendich, who coached Muhammad Sarengat to claim the fastest man title in 1962.

Rosendich said the USSA would help the Indonesia Sports Academy (Akorin) to create qualified coaches in the future, as included in the MoU. Graduates are expected to be able to apply their knowledge.

"Indonesia doesn't need to send athletes to train abroad but to deploy national coaches to enable them to build a proper system and training program," he said.

However, he added that athletes needed to compete abroad to test their skills against world-class contenders.

Rosendich expressed optimism that with the great number of young talented athletes in this country, Indonesia would be able to contest China and Japan in the future.

"From 200 million people in the country, KONI should not aim to finish sixth in the 2006 Asiad but to be the overall champion instead," he said. (yan)