Javanese high school students sweep running campionships
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)