KONI presents bonuses to SEAG medalists

KONI presents bonuses to SEAG medalists

BOGOR, West Java (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI)
handed over cash and insurance bonuses to 20th Southeast Asian
(SEA) Games medalists on Wednesday during a four-day coordination
meeting in Puncak, Bogor.

KONI chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar symbolically handed over
bonuses to cyclist Herry Janto Setiawan, shuttlers Taufik Hidayat
and Cindana Hartono, karatekas Omita Olga Ompi and Hasan Basri,
boxer Albert Papilaya, diver Shenny Ratna Amalia and swimmers
Richard Sam Bera and Albert Christiadi Sutanto.

Each gold medalist received a bonus of between Rp 5 million
and Rp 25 million (US$572 and $2,858), while silver medalists got
between Rp 500,000 and Rp 2 million. Bronze medalists pocketed
between Rp 300,000 and Rp 1 million. Gold medalists coaches got
Rp 5 million.

KONI received the budget for the bonus from state owned
enterprises, which provided Rp 7 billion to help KONI pay the
bonuses, prepare for the 2000 Olympic Games and bid for the 2006
Asian Games.

Wismoyo urged athletes to focus on their preparation to regain
the overall title in the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.

"All athletes are expected to fight hard to regain our overall
title, which we were embarrassingly stripped of in last month's
SEA Games in Brunei Darussalam," he said.

KONI proposes a total budget of Rp 124 billion to prepare its
athletes for three major events -- the 2000 Olympics in Sydney,
2001 SEA Games and 2002 Asian Games in Pusan, South Korea.

About Rp 100 billion of the budget will be used to groom more
than 1,000 athletes for the SEA Games.

KONI will prepare its athletes to compete in the Olympics,
despite worsening ties with Australia due to events in East
Timor.

"We will start their training in February. Ideally, we must
start the training in November but we are still waiting for the
money," he said.

KONI secretary-general Rudolf S. Warouw assured that there was
no need to boycott the quadrennial event.

"It would give Indonesia a bad image if we skip the Olympics
because it's a program of the International Olympics Committee
(IOC). However, if our government decides not to send a
contingent, there's nothing we can do," said Warouw, who just
returned from attending the chef de mission meet in Sydney.

Speaking on Indonesia's intention to bid for the 2006 Asiad,
Wismoyo said KONI would speak to the National Olympics Committee
(NOC) of Malaysia.

"We want ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) to
come with one voice. Therefore we will discuss this problem with
Malaysia," he said.

Separately in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian minister of youth and
sports, Muhyiddin Yassin, invited five ambassadors and 12
deputies of Asian embassies -- from Brunei, India, Yemen, Iraq,
Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait,
Cambodia, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, South Korea, Singapore,
Pakistan and Vietnam -- to listen to Malaysia's Asiad bidding
plan.

Antara said Malaysia -- which faces challenges from other
bidders such as Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Qatar, Syria and
Uzbekistan -- planned to set up an exhibition stand in Sydney
during the Olympics. (yan)