'Indonesia's karatekas 'lacking in creativity'

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Nervousness and lack of creativity in attacks were to blame for Indonesian karatekas' dismal performance in the recent World Championship in Mexico, according to the chairman of the Indonesian Karate-do Federation (Forki).

"Our athletes had problems with their attacking combinations. They were stalling in the attacks ... they would sit back after they just made one or two lunges instead of going for the follow- through," Ahmad Budu told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Forki fielded six athletes at the championship, which ran from Nov. 18 to 21. All returned home empty-handed. Most of them crashed out in the first round bouts.

Ismail Aswar and Oemar Syarif were ousted in the first round, while Jenny Zeannet, Kartika Ekawati, Puspa Meonk and Donny Dharmawan lost in the second round after getting byes in the first round.

Ismail was defeated by M. Cakic of Bosnia 1-2 in the men's 70 kilogram category. In the repercharge, he was beaten by M. Johnson of Australia, also 1-2.

Oemar, who competed in the men's Over-80 kg class, lost to F. Chantalu of France 6-3 in a tough bout in which the Indonesian led 2-0 early on before a knee injury seemed to interfere with his play.

Women's Under-53kg karateka Jenny Zeannet gave up to V. Selman 1-0 of Bosnia while Puspa was totally outclassed by Z. Klima of Hungary 10-1 in the Open category.

In the Under-60 kilogram class, female karateka Kartika lost 5-0 to L. Ferhatbegivic of Bosnia, and male karateka Donny was defeated 4-3 by W. Ngampika of the Congo.

Under-55 kg male karateka Syarif and Under-48 kilogram female karateka Telly Melinda found out that they would not be going to Mexico at the last minute as the organizers canceled the competitions in their classes.

Budu said that the Mexico outing had shown the federation that it needed to enhance the fighting spirit of its athletes.

"They easily became nervous," he said.

Japan topped the medal tally with four golds and one silver, followed by England with two golds and one silver in second place, and the U.S with two golds and two bronzes in third place.

The Mexican trip was part of Forki's preparation program for the 2005 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the Philippines and the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar.