Karate looking to land gold on opening day

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Cebu City, the Philippines

A favorable draw has beefed up the national karate team's gold medal hopes, but the dancesport team is keeping a conservative target of landing one spot in the finals.

Karate team manager Madju Dharyanto said on Saturday his athletes were in with a strong chance in the men's and women's team kumite competition as well as the individual kata events on Sunday.

"The draw in kumite is good for us as we face weaker opponents in the early rounds, while tough opponents like Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand must meet each other in early rounds."

He added that the karatekas were advised to fight for convincing victories because of concerns about biased judging for the host nation.

The Indonesian Karate do Federation (Forki) is targeting five gold from its athletes this year. The national squad's four gold medals in Vietnam in 2003 put it second behind the host nation, which won 12 gold.

The karate competition will be held in Mandaue City Sport Complex, Cebu,starting at 9 a.m. local time.

Madju was encouraged by the performance of the athletes after a three-week training stint in Germany, as well as victories over opponents from Malaysia and Vietnam in the recent world championship in Rotterdam and the Women's Islamic Games in Tehran.

Although the karate team is upbeat about its chances, dancesport team manager Endang R. Soegomo said her athletes would focus on reaching the finals before thinking about gold in the standard and Latin American events.

"Our favorite event is standard ballroom with Tri Mulyana, 23, and Trisnawati, 22, as our top hopefuls," she said.

"Our coach in the standard ballroom event also has a lot of international competition, thus boosting the confidence of our athletes."

In the Latin America event, she added, the national dancers only recently began learning the techniques and would find it difficult to medal.

Dancesport is making its debut in the SEA Games, with each country permitted to send two pairs for each event.

The national team's entrants are Tri and Trisnawati and husband-and-wife duo of Budhi Laij and wife Wisiana Tjan in the standard ballroom event. Thomas Susilo Hadi, 33, and partner Lanny Budiani, 32, and no. 1 couple of Kriswandono, 30, and Aprillia M, 29, are competing in Latin dancing.

The dancesport competition will be held at the ballroom of the Waterfront Cebu Hotel starting at 12:55 p.m..