Gymnasts set for 2-year Romanian outing

Gymnasts set for 2-year Romanian outing

Moch. N. Kurniawan
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The Indonesian Gymnastics Association (Persani) will send 10
young gymnasts to Romania for a two-year training camp starting
next month.

Persani secretary-general Asep Sulaeman said the 10 athletes
would be training under reputable Romanian coaches with a view to
enhancing their medal prospects at the 2005 Southeast Asian (SEA)
Games and the 2006 Asian Games.

"Romania (gymnastics federation) is very serious about our
outing program. It has a reputation as one of the best countries
in gymnastics," he said here on Friday.

"They have shown their concern for Indonesian gymnasts. They
hope we will not falter any more in Asian or international
competitions after we return home from the training," he said.

Two officials will be sent in advance to work on the
preparation of the training.

"We will send them on Nov. 6. They will be there for four or
five days," Asep said.

However, Asep refused to disclose the names of the athletes
saying that they had yet to finalize the list with the National
Sports Council (KONI).

The association has stipulated that the trainees should be
under 22 years of age for men and under 17 for women.

A shortlist has been formed based on the athletes' performance
at the national gymnastics championship early this year and the
National Games (PON) in Palembang in September.

Asep said four cities in Romania had already been selected as
the training bases. The cities are capital city Bucharest,
Constanta, Baya Mare and Deva.

The Romanian outing is part of Persani's long-term development
goal to send skilled athletes to participate in international
tournaments.

Critics say gymnasts in Indonesia are an aging population as
indicated in the recent PON where Jonathan Sianturi, 33, Sepri
Haryadi, 25, Lulu Manurung, 31, and Zahari, 26, still dominated
the competition.

Only few young gymnasts like Devri Chandra, 20, and M. Aldila
Akbar, 22, were able to compete with their seniors to win golds
in the 2004 PON.