Javanese high school students sweep running campionships

JAKARTA (JP): High school students from four Javanese cities outran their rivals from five other provinces yesterday in the final of the "Lari Indonesia Juara" competition, which featured a 5-kilometer and a 10-km run from the National Monument to a point near the Jakarta Convention Center.

"This is a kind of national running championship for school boys and girls, held in connection with National Sports Day (Sept. 9)," education ministry official Soedijarto told The Jakarta Post.

In the 10-km event, Sartini of Bandung, West Java, and M. Nasir of Jakarta won the girls and boys' divisions respectively. In the 5-km event, the winners were Sintawati of Solo in the girls' division and Octavianus of Surabaya in the boys' division.

The four beat the other finalists from Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan; Medan, North Sumatra; Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi; Padang, West Sumatra; and Palembang, South Sumatra.

According to Soedijarto, the first to third winners in each event will be sent as spectators to the 18th Southeast Asian Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from Dec. 9 to Dec. 17.

Whether or not the running event will be held again next year is very much dependent on the sponsor, he added.

Lari Indonesia Juara was sponsored by PT Nestle Indonesia.

"We have spent no less than Rp 500 million for this event, from the qualifying rounds in the nine cities to the final in Jakarta, mostly in the form of T-shirts and chocolate-malted drinks distributed freely," Denis Chavanis, marketing director of the Swiss-based company told The Post.

Chavanis said Nestle has been distributing its chocolate- malted drink "Milo" to school children throughout Indonesia free of charge since 1980.

The investment is beginning to pay off this year. "Compared to last year, we enjoyed around 50 percent increase in sales this year," Chavanis said. Although it has taken Nestle 15 years to get increase in sales, Chavanis is planning to extend the investment for another 15 years.

Will the company sponsor the running event again next year? "Maybe," Chavanis said. However, Nestle's sponsorship of a table tennis tournament in Jakarta next year has already been confirmed. (arf)