Indonesia may field smaller team in Asiad

JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council is considering a sizable cut in the Indonesian team for the Asian Games in Bangkok in December due to many sports' poor preparations.

The council official in charge of athletes' development, Muhammad Hindarto, said yesterday that only five out of 21 sports organizations selected to conduct training sessions for the Games had made progress.

"As of this moment only athletes from track and field, badminton, weightlifting, shooting and tennis have assured themselves of places in the national contingent for the Asiad," Hindarto said.

He said the sluggish preparations of all but the five above sports bodies had caused worries over their chances to bring home medals in the quadrennial event.

Some sports organizations have complained about financial shortages to finance their centralized training sessions, but Hindarto said such an excuse was intolerable.

"We set the schedule and program a long time before the economic recession. Then officials of the sports bodies agreed to cover half of the training expenses.

"They cannot just breach their commitments and leave us scrapping their athletes from the national team. That's unfair," Hindarto said.

He said the sports council had disbursed subsidies for the sports organizations before the training stint for the Asian Games officially kicked off in February.

Indonesia's preparations for the Asiad have been estimated at at least Rp 15 billion (US$135,000). One fifth of the amount has been covered by the government.

As if to add insult to injury, some of the sports organizations which failed to begin their training programs on time have also failed to provide the sports council with their regular reports, according to Hindarto.

"It's too bad because this make us totally blind as to their performance," he said.

The sports council announced in February that Indonesia would take part in 21 sports, including soccer, cycling, boxing, rowing, canoeing, karate, sepak takraw, wushu, swimming and archery.

The final lineup of the Indonesian team will be announced in November.

Despite the slimmer contingent, Hindarto said Indonesia could improve on its performance from the last Asiad in Hiroshima because only potential medal winners would leave for Bangkok.

Then Indonesia's 151-strong team won three golds, 12 silvers and 11 bronzes.

"The most important thing is that we participate and improve on our previous achievement, not necessarily become the number one nation," he said. (emf)