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)