Indonesia not hoping too much in taekwondo

JAKARTA (JP): Smarting from a series of upset defeats in the last two Southeast Asian Games, Indonesian taekwondo athletes have set their sights on no more than two gold medals in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in December.

"I am convinced it is the most realistic target. Thank God if we could win two more," Daniel Makhes, training director of the Taekwondo Indonesia organization, said after making a courtesy call to Chairman of the National Sports Council, Wismoyo Arismunandar, prior to his team's departure for the Japan Open yesterday.

"We came with a big team with absolutely enough preparations in the past, but we managed only two golds," Daniel recalled.

"Non-technical burdens as a visiting team cost our gold medal winning chances," he added. Of nine Indonesian male and female taekwondo masters who made it through the finals in the in the 1993 meet in Singapore, only Rahmi Kurnia and Anis Dewi won.

Taekwondo Indonesia is grooming 19 athletes for the Dec. 9- Dec. 17 SEA Games under tutelage of coach Oh Il-nam from South Korea, the home of the martial art. The athletes completed their two-month stint in South Korea last month.

Oh, who has been working for the organization for more than six years, said yesterday that Indonesia could not expect to take more than four medals. "Thailand looks to dominate the women's division and the Filipinos are strong in the men's category," he said.

The coach added that his trainees's readiness should match that of their prospective opponents at the Games. "Our athletes are now 30 percent away from reaching their peak performance," he said.

Daniel will take a four-strong team to the one-day international men's taekwondo championships in Osaka on Monday.

Heavyweight Andri Halim, who won an Asian Games bronze medal in the middleweight class, welterweight Dasantyo Pribadi, featherweight Fino Indra Permana and finweight Mehmed Sakolli are making their debut in the annual tournament.

"They are our SEA Games medal winning hopefuls," Daniel said. The Japanese outing will serve as the final tryout for the national team before entering the SEA Games.

Athletes from South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Chinese Taipei, Germany, Spain and the United States will turn up for the taekwondo event. (amd)