International meets for RI SEAG athletes
JAKARTA (JP): The national athletes will participate in several international meets prior to the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in September as a final selection for the biennial event.
"PASI (The Indonesian Amateur Athletics Association) expects the athletes to improve their personal bests at the meets, which will also serve as the final selection for the SEA Games team," PASI secretary-general Tigor Tanjung said on Wednesday.
"The try-out session is very important as they hardly have any competitors or enough competitions here."
PASI will send juniors Roza Herlinda in hammer throw, Dwi Ratna in discuss, Olivia Sadi in the women's 800-meter and Akrin in the men's 800-meter to the Asian Junior Championships in Brunei Darussalam from July 19 to July 22.
Juniors Qurais and Rika Fardani will compete at the World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, from Aug. 3 to Aug. 12 for 100-meter and 200-meter dash.
PASI will also send 11 seniors, including men's pole vaulter Nunung Jayadi, and Dedeh Erawati in the women's 100-meter hurdle, to the Malaysia Open from July 27 to July 29.
Tigor was speaking during a supervision by National Sports Council (KONI) chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar.
"The athletes' performance after the first and second phases of training are still below expectation as most of them have yet to equal their personal bests," said Tigor.
"Several records were broken during the National Athletics Championships from June 17 to June 20, but none was made at the first series of the National Athletics Grand Prix on July 1."
"We expect the athletes to improve their form in the second leg of the Grand Prix on July 15."
In the championships, women's pole vaulter Ni Putu Desi Margawati sharpened her own national record of 3.90 meters to 4 meters. Women's hammer thrower Yurita Ariani improved her own record of 46.56 meters to 50.39 meters.
Aria Yuniawan improved his own record in the men's high jump from 2.06 meters to 2.08 meters. Kristian L Tobing bettered the men's 20,000-meter walking time from 1:33:19 to 1:32:50.
During the occasion, throwers and jumpers complained that it was difficult to perform better as they did not have proper shoes for the competition.
Tigor said the shoes were not available in Indonesia as the market was limited to athletes.
"We have to order the shoes from Japan and Germany. The problem is an athlete needs different shoes when competing in two or three events. It costs up to US$100 for each pair of shoes."
"We also have problems with the Tax and Excise Directorate General, which has rejected KONI's request to free sports equipment from luxury tax."
"Javelin costs $100 each and a pole vault costs between $300 and $400 each. We cannot provide more equipment for out athletes outside Jakarta if the tax is imposed." (nvn)