Indonesia secures 18 Olympic slots: KONI

Indonesia secures 18 Olympic slots: KONI

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia has secured 18 slots in the Athens Olympic Games in
August -- but still far from its targeted 50, said a national
sports official.

Chef-de-mission Indra Kartasasmita, who is also in charge of
planning and budgeting affairs at the National Sports Council
(KONI), said on Wednesday that Indonesia had snapped up slots in
seven sports: archery (2), swimming (3), weightlifting (7),
windsurfing (1), tae kwon do (2), tennis (1) and track and field
(2).

The tennis and track-and-field slots were secured through the
International Olympics Committee (IOC) wild cards.

Oka Sulaksana is Indonesia's windsurfer at the Olympics, while
tae kwon do teams will be represented by Juana Wangsa Putri and
Satrio Rahardani, archery by Rina Dewi Puspita Sari and
Lockoneko. Donny Utomo, Andi Wibowo and Albert Sutanto will
represent the country in swimming.

The weightlifting, tennis and track and field athletes are as
yet undecided.

Indra said that KONI would aim for more berths in other
events, including cycling, badminton, rowing, judo, boxing, beach
volleyball and diving.

"We will find out about our badminton qualifiers in April," he
said.

Badminton is the only sport that has given Indonesia its first
gold medals at the Olympic level, thanks to the accomplished
feats of the now-married star couple Susi Susanti and Alan Budi
Kusuma in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Indra said KONI is planning to channel Rp 25.7 billion
(US$3.023 million) to finance training camps and participation in
the world's biggest multi-event sporting contest.

The training camp will be carried out in two phases: In the
first phase, from March to June, sports organizations will manage
the training of their own athletes', while KONI will take over
the task in the second phase from July to August.