Karatekas to be sent abroad for trials

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Karate Federation plans to send its athletes training for the SEA Games abroad for trial matches.

The federation's training director, Tono Soe'oed, said yesterday: "We plan to send the karatekas to trial matches in Australia and Japan in June. Some of them will take part in the world championships in the Philippines in August."

Tono said the federation would select the Games team after the trials. The Games will held in Jakarta in October.

Fifty athletes are on the squad training for the Games. They are being coached by Ucok Marisi, Christine Taroreh and Willem Mantiri under the guidance of head coach Tono Soe'oed.

Tono said he was optimistic that his team could win most of the karate gold medals at the Games, or more than the seven golds which it won at the 1993 Games in Singapore.

"Indonesia is considered the favorite in karate. We must defend our performance in the coming Games. The Philippines is our biggest threat although Thailand and Vietnam are looking to defeat Indonesia," Tono was quoted by Antara as saying.

Tono said there was no need to hire foreign coaches because the local coaches had proved up to the job.

He also said there was no need for a new training facility since the karatekas had adequate facilities at the Senayan stadium.

"The open corridor at the Senayan stadium used for training is sufficient so we don't need a new facility," Tono said.

But Nurosy Nurasjati said the corridor had to be renovated. "At first we wanted to use the Hall C building in Senayan for training but it is being used for wushu. So we moved to the corridor which we consider appropriate for training."

Nurosy hoped that training in the Senayan stadium corridor would only be a temporary arrangement. She said the corridor's damaged tiles endangered the athletes.

"I once suffered a foot injury during training," Nurosy said. She competed in the women's 53 kilogram individual event at the 1993 Games. (lnt)