Indonesia's Busan Asiad contingent a failure: Warouw
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Busan, South Korea
The Busan 2002 Asian Games ended on Monday, with the Indonesian contingent failing to fulfill its target of bringing home at least six gold medals, only able to deliver a meager four after 16 days of competition.
Indonesian chef-de-mission Rudolf S. Warouw admitted that the Indonesian contingent had failed to achieve its target.
"We have failed to improve our performance in comparison with the 1998 Bangkok Asiad. But I will take full responsibility," he told Indonesian reporters at a media conference at the Main Press Center (MPC) in the Busan Expo and Convention Center (BEXCO).
"But please don't blame the athletes. They did their best to win whatever medals they could. That's enough for me."
Warouw said all athletes sent by the National Sports Council (KONI) to the quadrennial sporting event should have been able to win a medal or two.
"Each athlete had been through the training center and his or her achievement was closely examined by their own sports organizations to determine their medal potential.
"But it seems that we overlooked our opponents or exaggerated our own athletes' achievements," said Warouw, citing as an example senior cyclist Tonton Sutanto, who was beaten by cyclists from the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union.
Tonton finished only fourth in the men's individual time trial on Sept. 30 in Busan's northern Gijang county, losing to cyclists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan and Uzbekistan.
"We didn't expect that the Central Asian cyclists would be such tough opponents because we had never heard of them before.
"Therefore we must improve our sports intelligence," said Warouw, who is also KONI secretary-general.
But on the other hand, he said, the sports organizations seemed also to have overestimated their athletes' achievement.
"If we had really based athlete selection on their realistic chances of winning a medal, our contingent might have been reduced by as much as a half," he said.
"Many countries asked me why we sent so few athletes, despite the size of the contingent."
Indonesia sent 98 athletes to the Asiad, while other Southeast Asian countries sent up to 200 each.
Malaysia had 212 athletes winning six gold medals, to end up at 12th position, while Thailand's 267 athletes managed to grab 14 gold medals, earning them a respectable sixth place.
Singapore sent only 96 athletes, but won five gold medals and achieved 13th position.
Warouw also deplored the fact that Indonesia had failed to participate in track and field, swimming and shooting events, each of which offered more than 40 gold medals.
Upon the contingent's arrival home, there will be a ceremony on Thursday at KONI headquarters at the Bung Karno Sports Complex, to officially dissolve the Asian Games contingent.
KONI will also symbolically present a cash bonus to medal winners.
Gold medalists will each receive Rp 250 million (US$27,700), silver medalists Rp 150 million and bronze medalists Rp 50 million.