Harry and Nemo to be the first RI Olympic competitors

JAKARTA (JP): Lifter Harry Setiawan and bantamweight Nemo Bahari will be the first Indonesian athletes to compete at the Atlanta Olympic Games from July 19 to Aug. 4.

Harry, who will compete in the 54kg category, will begin his medal campaign on July 20, one day after the Games open. On the same day, Nemo, two-time best boxer of the President Cup international amateur boxing championships, will take on his opponent at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Atlanta, Antara reported yesterday.

Indonesian male swimmer Richard Sam Bera is scheduled to compete on July 22 in the 100m freestyle category and on July 25 in the 50m. Also on July 22, surfer Oka Sutalaksana will compete in the men's mistral event.

On July 23, the beach male volleyball team of Nurmufid and Markoji and their female counterparts, Ni Putu Timi and Engel Bertha Kaisei, will have their turn.

Also on July 23, light middleweight Hendrik Simangunsong and flyweight Hermensen Ballo will try to survive the first round. Their teammate, lightweight La Paene Masara, will lock horns on July 26.

The fifth day of the Games, July 24, will see Indonesia's world No. 1 shuttlers starting in both the men's and women's singles qualifying rounds. One day later, the men's and women's doubles qualifying round will follow. The mixed doubles events will begin on July 26. The finals for all badminton events will begin on July 31.

Male table tennis player Anton Suseno and his female teammate Rosy Dipoyanti will also start on the same day with their shuttler compatriots.

A day later, on July 25, Indonesia's top tennis player, Yayuk Basuki, and her Federation Cup doubles partner, Romana Tejakusuma, will be in action.

The archery event, which gave Indonesia its first-ever Olympic medal at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, will see Indonesia's female archery team of Nurfitriyana, Dahliana and Hamdiah beginning their individual efforts to grab an Olympic medal. The event will begin on July 28 and last until Aug. 2. The women's archery team will try to regain the silver medal it earned in Seoul.

Female long-distance runner Ethel Hudson, the only Indonesian athlete scheduled to participate in the track and field contests, will appear on the Games' last day, Aug. 4.

Indonesia will field a total of 39 athletes in 10 sports. (arf)