'Indonesia's karatekas 'lacking in creativity'
'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.