Indonesia offers to host alternative archery meet
Indonesia offers to host alternative archery meet
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Archery Association (Perpani)
proposed a tournament in August to make up for the lack of an
archery competition at the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in
Bandar Seri Begawan in the same month.
Perpani's secretary-general, Udi Harsono, said the tournament,
which was expected to be contested by archery federations from
Southeast Asian countries, was proposed after SEA Games host
Brunei decided not to include archery in the biennial event due
to limited facilities.
The proposed archery tournament is scheduled to be held in
Bangkok from Aug. 7 to Aug. 15 and is aimed at strengthening
solidarity among participating archers. It will also serve as a
warm-up for Olympic qualifying tournaments.
"Perpani will initiate a diplomatic approach with each
country's representatives to ask for their support to stage this
event," Udi said.
Udi said archery federations from Southeast Asian countries,
including Indonesia, had asked Brunei to include archery in the
Games.
He also said the federations offered their support to provide
facilities and human resources if they were not available in
Brunei.
"Brunei said that it was facing a lack of facilities and human
resources and it could only organize certain competitions. For
solidarity among Southeast Asian countries, we respect the host's
capability," Udi said.
The Games, held in Brunei for the first time, will include 20
medal sports. These sports are track and field, badminton,
basketball, billiards and snooker, boxing, cycling, soccer, golf,
hockey, karate, pencak silat, sepak takraw, shooting, squash,
swimming, table tennis, tae kwon do, tennis, rowing and canoeing,
and bowling.
Perpani has been training its athletes at the Senayan archery
range for Olympic qualifications starting in August. Six of the
seven female archers will compete in the World Meet in Riom,
France from July 22 to July 26 before Olympic qualifications
begin. They will also compete in the Asian Championships in
Beijing from Sept. 1 to Sept. 5.
The six athletes are Nurfitriyana Saiman Lantang, Kusuma
Wardhani, Hamdiah, Dwi Purwanti, Lusia Elizabeth and Ajeng Wulan.
Substitute Yuliasih will be called up if Dwi fails to show up at
the training complex by Saturday.
Andi Suhendro, Perpani's deputy of athletes development, said
that the association would wait for Dwi until the last minute
before calling up Yuliasih. Dwi earlier declined to take part in
the training because of her studies in Surabaya and her
difficulty in obtaining a work permit from the Surabaya
mayoralty. (ivy)