Indonesian athletes face challenging times ahead
Indonesian athletes face challenging times ahead
JAKARTA (JP): With two major sporting events drawing near,
Indonesian athletes are faced with a quandary. Both the Asian
Track and Field Championships, which will take place at home in
September, and December's 18th Southeast Asian Games in Chiang
Mai represent significant competitions and an equally significant
strain on Indonesia's young athletes.
"The Asian Championships are actually of higher significance
than the SEA Games," said Sediono Rijanto, an official of the
Indonesian Track and Field Association (PASI), after meeting with
top National Sports Council (KONI) officials yesterday.
Mochammad Hindarto, the KONI official responsible for the
athletes' performances and whom Rijanto consulted yesterday, said
otherwise: "Winning the track and field golds at the SEA games
remains our target this year."
KONI began a series of consultative meetings yesterday with
all of the sport organizations under its supervision, before the
centralized training program for the SEA Games begins.
The Asian Championships, slated for Sept. 20-24, and the SEA
Games highlight PASI's agenda this year, but Rijanto said, "it is
difficult for us to decide who should be fielded in both meets."
Athletes who compete at the Asian meet will need a certain
amount of recovery time before they are ready for another big
contest, he argued. Rijanto estimated that they would regain
their top form by the middle of December.
Indonesia's 19-strong team left the 1993 Asian track and field
meet in Manila and went home empty handed.
Indonesian athletes are expected to win medals in sprints, the
long jump and the javelin throw in the Dec. 9-17 SEA Games. The
country regained its dominance in the track and field events at
the regional sporting meet in 1993 when it garnered 14 golds.
Rijanto said 25 athletes are preparing at the centralized
training center here and six at provincial training centers. The
six are Rabaiya in Ujungpandang, Martini Kustiah in Bandung,
Ferry Junaedi and Triasih Handayani in Central Java, and
Soeselisa's sisters of Ira and Judith in Surabaya, East Java.
Missing is one of the women's sprinters, Ester Sumah, who is
suffering from hepatitis.
The male athletes are prepared for the 100m, 4 x 100m relay,
400m, 800m, 1,500m, 5,000m, 110m hurdles, long jump, javelin
throw, triple jump, decathlon and marathon.
The female athletes, on the other hand, are training for the
10,000m, javelin throw, long jump, heptathlon, and the triple
jump.
Rijanto was among four top sporting officials engaged in a
one-hour consultation with KONI yesterday. Starting yesterday,
KONI will meet with each of the 22 organizations.
Another chairperson who consulted with KONI yesterday was
Johni Woworuntu, secretary general of the Indonesian Table Tennis
Association. He said Indonesia's SEA Games men's team will
include Anton Suseno, Hadiyudo Prayitno, Al Arkam and Dedi da
Costa. The women's team comprises Rosi Pratiwi, Fauziah Julianti
and Putri Hasibuan.
Woworuntu said the team would leave for their overseas stint
in Shanghai, China, on March 21 before taking part in the World
Championships in Tianjin, also in China, on May 1-14. (arf)