KONI picks swimmers, horse riders for Asiad

JAKARTA (JP): National Sports Council (KONI) chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar on Wednesday gave the nod to two women swimmers and four horse riders to compete at the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok next month.

Calling his decision a special policy, Wismoyo said the athletes deserved places in the Asiad-bound national team for undergoing months of overseas training and trials without relying on the council's financial support.

"Their respective sports organizations have spent so much money that we must appreciate their labors. Hopefully, the athletes will finish among the top four at the Asiad," Wismoyo said.

The new entries take the Indonesian team to 124 athletes. They will don the national colors in 20 of 36 sports being contested during the Dec. 6 to Dec. 20 event being held in Bangkok.

Wismoyo has frequently vowed that the council would apply strict yardsticks in selecting the Asiad-bound athletes, with only short-listed potential medal winners expected to qualify.

The National Swimming Association sent Catherine Surya to Australia and Rita Mariani to the United States in November last year for Asiad training. They were absent from the final national selection last week, in which all of their six fellow Asiad recruits missed the games' qualifying times.

National team training director Mochamad Hindarto backed Wismoyo's decision, saying Catherine's coach, Michael Bowl, and Rita's coach, Bill Jewell, had promised that the two swimmers would peak at the Asiad.

The Indonesian Equestrian and Horse Racing Association (Pordasi) said it would cover its athletes' expenses during the Asiad. The men's quartet of Roy Ibrahim, Ardi Hapsoro, Indra Rosendi and Rafiq Hakim Radinal are at present competing in the six-leg Southeast Asian league of the Volvo World Cup, the final of which will be in Thailand just before the Asiad.

"Since they are there and spending so much money, why shouldn't we let them compete in Asiad? Who knows, they might win one medal. Let's not argue about that," Wismoyo said.

In its report to Hindarto last month, Pordasi withdrew its bid to compete in the Games after its quartet failed to impress in the first four legs of the Southeast Asian league.

But last week, the equestrian team training director Suheryana dropped the withdrawal after seeing Ardi finish second in the fifth leg in Malaysia recently.

Hindarto said KONI added to the list of athletes partly to escape fines to be imposed by the games organizing committee on participating countries who make changes to their team lists.

The Bangkok Asian Games Organizing Committee has introduced the policy to avoid disorderliness in the Games schedule, but the amount has yet to be decided.

Meanwhile, South Korean sports officials said Wednesday three medal hopes for the Asiad had failed drug tests.

The three women -- one swimmer and two gymnasts -- were found to have used banned drugs "probably diuretics for weight control," a Korea Sports Council (KSC) spokesman told AFP.

The council declined to name the three who were among 210 athletes tested two weeks ago at the state-run Taenung Training Camp.

Camp head Lee Sang-kyun told parliament that he would test all other athletes at his camp. "I feel embarrassed. I will try to test all Asiad members."

The council will meet Thursday to discuss the drug failures, the KSC spokesman said.

"There has been no decision yet, but the three are likely to be banned from going to Bangkok," he said. (yan)