Indonesia's SEA Games diving squad named

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Swimming Association has named a three-man and three-woman diving team to represent Indonesia in the 19th SEA Games here in October.

The association's diving deputy head, Harly Rahmayani, said the team should win at least one of the four diving golds at the Games.

Indonesia's biggest chance is in the men's three-meter board event.

"We hope we can take a gold in this event," Harly said.

"We are trying to equal our achievement at the last Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in front of our own public," she said.

In Chiang Mai, Indonesia won one diving gold. Temmy Kusuma won it in the men's one-meter board event.

The 19th SEA Games will start on Oct. 11 and will end on Oct. 19. Diving events will include men's and women's tower dives and men's and women's three-meter board events.

Harly said Indonesia's toughest rivals in the women's three- meter board would come from Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Thai's Sukruethai won gold in the event at the last Games in Thailand. Jane Elaine of the Philippines came second and Indonesia's Dwi Mariastuti took the bronze.

Jury

"The jury at the last Games was not good. It awarded a 10 point score at the Games, while 10 points is rarely given in the world championships," Harly said.

The jury is made up of two representatives from the host country, and one from each participating country.

Harly said Thailand would probably dominate the tower events again.

"Temmy and Nani Suryani were cheated at the last Games because they were not prepared for unfair scoring. They performed very badly on the first day (because a perfect 10 score was awarded to a rival) but improved over the next few days. The Asian diving confederation's technical delegation threatened to cancel the competition if the jury gave out 10s again," she told Kompas.

Harly said she expected the Games organizers to immediately install a three-meter board for the Games.

"The more chance our athletes have to test the board the better. They need at least two weeks to try out the board," she said.

Indonesia has named Temmy Kusuma and Husaini Noor to represent it in the men's three-meter board event, and Nani Suryani and Eka Purnama Indah in the women's three-meter board event. Husaini and Gatot Taruna will also compete in the men's tower event while Nani and Shenny Ratna Amelia will compete in the women's tower event. Nasrullah and Sri Ida Yulia Lastari are substitutes.

The Indonesian Archery Association says it will keep trying to persuade veteran archer Nurfitriyana to join the SEA Games squad, even though she has refused.

Suara Karya reported that the association would also call on Nurfitriyana's former Olympic silver medal winning teammate Kusumawardhani.

Nurfitriyani, Kusumawardhani and Lilies Handayani won a silver medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. They defeated the United States team in the final.

The association's secretary-general, Udi Harsono, said they were calling for both veterans to come back "to return Indonesia's glory in archery to the Games."

Nurfitriyana said: "It would be difficult for me to perform my best at the Games because there are only two months left to train."

Four archers failed to make the grade at the World Archery Championships in Victoria, Canada, last month.

Purnama Pandiangan, Lucia Elisabeth and Dwi Purwanti on Indonesia's women's team and Hendra Setijawan, who is on the men's side, competed at the championships.

Dwi was the only archer to qualify for the main draw, but she lost out in the first round.

Udi said the rescheduling of the national championships was responsible for their defeat.

The championships in Surabaya were scheduled from July 17 to July 26, but were delayed until Aug. 18 to Aug. 26.

"I didn't have much hope for the team, but they must meet the requirements for the Games," Udi said.

Some of the athletes have complained that the Gandul, South Jakarta, training site is not windy enough to challenge them properly.

"It's dangerous because we should practice under more difficult conditions than we would expect to find in the competition. If we have to compete against our rivals at Senayan, we may lose because the Senayan range is windier," Hendra said.

Udi said the association planned to move the training to Senayan by mid September.

Defending country Thailand will send fewer athletes than planned, 966 athletes instead of 1,253 athletes, because of the U.S. dollar's rise against the baht.

"However, we must still be wary of Thailand. The number of athletes they send will not influence their potential power at the Games, because only the numbers of athletes competing in team events will be reduced," said Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar, a sports observer.

Thai athletes will still compete in 34 events. They have been training hard to prove they can win the overall title outside their country. (yan)