Indonesia archers below par in Asian Games simulation

JAKARTA (JP): With less than one month left until the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok early next month, Indonesia's archers are still firing well below the required form.

South Korean coach Lee Jae-hyung expressed his disappointment after the first day of a two-day simulation event at the Senayan archery range on Tuesday.

"In practice they can shoot better. Automatically their scores are higher. But during competition, they didn't pay much attention to the shooting. They become too careful," Lee said.

"We still have one month left, hopefully they can improve and control their emotions," he said.

The Indonesian Archery Association is grooming eight archers for the quadrennial Asiad in Bangkok from Dec. 6 to Dec. 20. They are Nurfitriyana Saiman Lantang, Dwi Purwanti, Lusia Elizabeth and Suhartini for the women's competition and Hendra Setijawan, Wahyu Hidayat, Yulianto and Latif Pramono on the men's side.

They will compete from Dec. 12 to Dec. 17.

During Tuesday's FITA round, Nurfitriyana finished first with 1,193 points, well below the required score of 1,300 points.

The Asiad archery competition will begin with an elimination round in which each archer will shoot 36 arrows from each of 70 meters, 60m, 50m and 30m.

Qualifiers will then go into a knock-out format using 18 arrows. Only 12 arrows will be used in the final round.

The minimum score to qualify for the knock-out stage in the Asian Games will be 1,300 out of 1,440. Archers must score 160 to progress from the second round.

Nurfitriyana, who won the 1988 Olympic silver medal with Lilies Handayani and Kusumawardhani, complained that she still could not maintain her consistency.

"It's not easy to adapt to the new technique. Without full concentration, it's difficult for us to shoot consistently. Sometimes we remember our old techniques in critical situations," she said.

Yuli Hidayana, a non-team member from Lampung, surprisingly finished second with 1,156 while Suhartini scored 1,153, Dwi Purwanti produced 1149 and Lusia Elizabeth shot 1142.

Coach Daniel Lumalesil said: "We can't say that Yuli is much better then the other archers. She has nothing to lose during the simulation while our archers must meet the required score."

"We'll see how she does tomorrow in the Olympic round."

In the men's division, all four team archers topped the results. Wahyu scored 1,201, Hendra 1,195, Yulianto marked 1,191 and Latif made 1,182.

Hendra said: "It's difficult to do what the coach has said, especially to maintain balanced shooting. When we can get the balance, we become careless and forget about the wind. I'm still confused about our coach's instructions."

Hendra, who scored 1,283 last month said the new technique would be good if applied in a long-term training stint.

"We only joined the training camp in late August. We need more time to perfect our skills. But our coach wants us to reach the ideal form quickly," he complained. (yan)