Indonesia sets aim for three golds in table tennis

By Primastuti Handayani

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is targeting three table tennis golds at the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Brunei Darussalam, despite the challenge posed by Chinese-born players on the Malaysian and Singaporean squads.

Indonesia Table Tennis Association (PTMSI) secretary-general Johnny F. Waworuntu said Malaysia and Singapore would field Chinese-born players who had resided in both countries for some time.

International Table Tennis Federation rules state nonnative players are allowed to play for a new country if he or she has resided in the country for three years. However, these players can only compete in individual events, not team events.

"But the rules for the SEA Games are different. Players must be citizens of the country they represent," he said.

PTMSI urged the National Sports Council (KONI) to raise the issue at the National Olympic Committee executive meeting in Brunei Darussalam during the Games, which will take place from Aug. 7 to Aug. 15.

Faced with the challenge of the Chinese-born players, Indonesia will have a difficult task retaining its table tennis dominance in the biennial event.

Indonesia swept all seven table tennis golds at the 1995 Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and won five golds in the 1997 Games here.

Three table tennis golds -- in the men's singles, doubles and team event -- at this year's Games sounds like a realistic target.

Indonesia's male players will face their toughest rivals in Chinese-born players from Malaysia -- world number 61 Li Jun Hwei, the 1987 Asian junior champion, and Yao Lin Ching.

In the women's events, Indonesia's chances of winning gold are slight because Singapore will field its Chinese-born players. They are world number eight Jin Ju Hong, Liu Cha Hwee and Liu Yuan-Yuan. Jin recently defeated world number one Deng Ya Ping of China.

The Malaysian women also have an outside shot of grabbing gold with Chinese-born Yao Ling Ching.

However, Indonesia's women's doubles team of Puteri Hasibuan and Fauziah Juliati have a chance to steal a gold.

Waworuntu said Indonesia's table tennis athletes had limited overseas training in China this year.

"Usually they train in China for three months, but this year they only had one month. Hopefully they learned something from their time there," he said.

Ten male and female table tennis athletes spent one month in China, returning home on Tuesday before flying to Brunei on Wednesday.

Coach Leman Affandi said the players toured seven cities in China -- Beijing, Harbin, Shenyang, Changchun, Qingdao, Shanghai and Nanjing -- training with world-class players.

"We had tough opponents during the stints in Beijing and Shanghai. But I'm glad our athletes improved their playing strategy during the training.

"They saw that their opponents were difficult to beat. They must also raise their level of performance so that they are not easy to beat," he said.

Leman said all the athletes increased their self-confidence during their time in China.

"Now they are highly self-confident they will be able to overcome their future opponents in the Games no matter how hard and difficult the matches are. The most important thing they have learned is to build their confidence."

Lineups

Men: Anton Suseno, Deddy Rudolf Da Costa, Ersan Sutanto Tan, Hadiyudo Prayitno and Muhammad Al Arkam

Women: Celia Nilasari Jusma, Christine Ferliana Santoso, Fauziah Jualianti, Puteri Septi Naulina Hasibuan and Rossy Pratiwi Dipoyanti