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)