Indonesia well prepared for World Archery C'ship
Indonesia well prepared for World Archery C'ship
JAKARTA (JP): D.M. Lovo, the vice president of the world
archery body, FITA, expressed satisfaction yesterday at
Indonesia's preparations for hosting the World Archery
Championships.
The 38th World Outdoor Target Archery Championships are
scheduled to take place in Jakarta from Aug. 1 to Aug. 6.
"I am very pleased with the preparations," said Lovo with a
smile. Lovo inspected Jakarta's Senayan archery field, locally
called the ABC field, on Sunday.
Praising the organizing committee, he said, "I feel
comfortable that things are going well with the preparations."
Lovo said he believed the organizer, the Indonesian Archery
Association (Perpani), will not need any financial assistance
from FITA. Earlier, Perpani has estimated it would need about Rp
2 billion (US$907,852) to hold the event and planned to secure
the fund through sponsorship.
"I think you are in a good shape financially," Lovo said. He
added he was informed that the business community was supportive
of the organizer.
The FITA executive said he expected that around 70 countries
will take part in the championships which will serve as a
qualifying round for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Seventy-five
percent of the world's Olympic archers will be chosen at the
Jakarta world championships.
Unlike in the previous championships, each participating
country will be allowed to field 16 contestants instead of eight
this year.
However, Lovo hinted that the organizer might still need some
technical assistance from FITA. The tournament will be the first
world championships ever to feature the compound event in
addition to the traditional, manual recurving event.
In the compound event, archers are mechanically assisted in
terms of velocity. This enables the arrow to move twice as fast
and to reach speeds of up to 300 feet per second.
Compound archery was developed 25 years ago. The decision to
include it in the world championships was made at the last FITA
congress in Ankara, Turkey, in 1993. (arf)