Juana's plan to attend PON queried

JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI) will ask the Indonesian Taekwondo Association (TI) to exclude women's taekwondoin Juana Wangsa Putri from taking part in the 15th National Games (PON) in Surabaya from June 19 to June 30.

Olympics training director Arie Sudewo said on Tuesday he would ask the association to instead send Juana to the Korean Open taekwondo championship in Seoul from June 26 to July 1 to warm up for the 2000 Olympic Games. The PON and Korea Open coincide.

"I want her to compete in Korea because she will face no strong opposition at PON. And I have prepared her for the Olympics, not for PON," he said.

He said he would ask the Jakarta chapter of the taekwondo association, where Juana is registered as a PON competitor, to put the national interest before the provincial one.

"I will ask the chapter to be realistic. I'll ask the officials not to be afraid of losing one gold medal from Juana at PON. If she is successful at the Korean Open and the Olympics, the whole nation will know that she was groomed by the Jakarta chapter," he said.

Arie said he would not force the chapter to fulfill his demand. "There is no dispute. We will talk with them in a persuasive way," he said.

Juana, a flyweight fighter, is currently attending a training program in South Korea for the 2000 Olympics Games in Sydney. She was diagnosed as suffering from chronic back pain in March, and, along with the training program, is also undergoing rehabilitation.

Last month she began competing again, choosing the Asian Championships in Hong Kong, where she crashed out in the first round. Her South Korean coach Oh Il-nam had asked her not to fight all out due to her injury.

The association's secretary-general, Ahmad Zarkasih Hamid, said on Tuesday that his chairman Suharto would decide Juana's competition schedule this week.

"We are waiting for Juana's medical check in a couple days. We will formally tell Pak Suharto about her," he said over the phone.

Zarkasih also said the association had set out two alternative plans for Juana. Either let her compete at the Games or her allow her to perform at the Games and then fly her to South Korea to take part in the Korean Open.

"Coach Oh said that Juana was allowed to fight at PON as long as it did not injure her. That is why we conducted a check up to assess the possibility of injury," he said. (ivy)