Hockey body sets out plans for SEA Games preparations

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Hockey Association (PHSI) executive chairman Nang Primadi Tarmadi said on Wednesday that hockey players would be sent to Brunei Darussalam to compete in the 20th Southeast Asia (SEA) Games in August.

Tarmadi said that 18 men and 18 women would shortly be joining squad training programs in Jakarta.

He denied earlier speculation that the PHSI would be incapable of preparing teams for the games because of internal conflict which is said to be wracking the organization.

"We have made experienced SEA Games players who are still young enough to compete our top priority in training," he said.

Tarmadi said that Indonesia would try to build on the success of the men's team in the 1997 SEA Games, where Indonesia won the bronze medal.

"We want our men's and women's team to at least finish in the top three, but we hope for a silver medal in the men's event and we hope the women will match that," said Tarmidi, who lectures at Bandung Institute of Technology's School of Art and Design.

Indonesia's men finished third behind Malaysia and Singapore in 1997, with the women failing to finish in the medals.

The National Sports Council (KONI) is waiting for the PHSI to submit the names of players included in the two squads bound for Brunei.

The PHSI originally tried to include 39 men and 33 women in the training programs, but KONI intervened to cut the numbers, refusing to provide funds for players who were unlikely to make the final teams.

PHSI officials told KONI that it is taking steps to settle the internal conflict which has so far hindered preparations for the games.

Tarmidi said that his key players were currently undertaking physical training in Lampung, Sumatra.

"They will arrive here in the third week of June to join the centralized training program," he said. (ivy)