Indonesian wrestlers to compete in Tokyo
Indonesian wrestlers to compete in Tokyo
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Wrestling Association (PGSI)
executive director, Endro Soemardjo, said on Friday that the
association has named two athletes to compete in the pre-Olympic
qualifying round in Tokyo.
"The two wrestlers will compete in the freestyle class in the
qualification as they have a good chance to get Olympic tickets.
They have been training in their respective provinces and they
will arrive here 10 days before the competition," he said.
"We turned down the offer to compete in the Greeco Roman pre-
Olympic qualification in Tashkent because our athletes would have
only a slight chance to earn Olympic berths," said Endro, who is
also director general of informal school education, youth and
sports of the Ministry of National Education.
PGSI has selected Dedy Wahyudi of East Kalimantan (54
kilograms) and Zulhaidir of South Kalimantan (58 kg) to compete
in the qualifications from Feb. 25 to Feb. 27.
Endro said both wrestlers must finish in the top 10 of their
division if they want to earn Olympic tickets.
He also said that other wrestlers, who did not have chances to
compete in the qualification, could compete in regular Asian
competitions.
"This year we have planned to send athletes to compete in four
of 40 tournaments on offer. But until today I have yet to decide
which tournaments we are going to compete in."
Endro said PGSI would stage four national championships this
year. The first, in Jakarta is the national junior championships
in March, second is the national senior championships scheduled
for July in East Java, third is the national championships and
the last is the cadet and interclub national championships in
West Java in August.
"PGSI has yet to decide if we need to stage the third
tournament of the national championships because after the
National Games in Surabaya in June, athletes will be at low
levels of fitness," he said.
"I personally want PGSI to continue staging the championships
to create regular competition at home, in order to promote the
sport throughout the country."
"If we can stage those tournaments successfully, I believe
wrestling will become better known in Indonesia."
Wrestling is a sport that can contribute many golds in multi-
sport events. In the 1997 Southeast Asia (SEA) Games in Jakarta,
national wrestlers won nine of 20 golds on offer, but in the 1999
Games wrestling was not featured. (yan)