KONI tightens criteria for sending teams to Asiad

JAKARTA (JP): Due to the deepening economic turmoil, the National Sports Council's Asiad task force has decided to combine the three categories of sports set to compete at the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok in December into only one.

The task force chairman, Muhammad Hindarto, said yesterday: "Only sports organizations that can reach the top four in Asia by the end of July have a chance to compete at the Games."

The council announced Tuesday three categories for the 22 sports, based on their chances of winning medals. The first is badminton, boxing, karate, tae kwon do, tennis (if world ranked 20 Yayuk Basuki plays), weightlifting and windsurfing. Beach volleyball, canoeing, fencing, rowing, sepak takraw, swimming, wrestling and wushu make up the second group while cycling, equestrian, gymnastics, indoor volleyball, judo, shooting, soccer and track and field are in the third category.

"We should not consider the possible medal winners because the council only has a limited budget to send athletes to the Asiad," Hindarto said.

Hindarto, who is also the council's athletes development deputy, said that athletes being groomed for the Asiad were expected to reach their peak performance in August.

"Their standard must equal Asian records," he said.

But national shuttlers will have to reach their peak in May at the Thomas and Uber Cups.

"After reaching their peaks, either in May or August, they are expected to recover soon before being groomed to reach their peak again in December for the Asiad," Hindarto said.

"Athletes who fail to reach their peak in August will have to bury their dreams of competing in the Asiad," he added.

However, Hindarto said that the athletes who will be excluded from the Asiad squad still had to prepare for the 1999 SEA Games in Brunei Darussalam.

Hindarto also said that his department would keep financing the long-term training from its 1998/1999 budget.

"So far, we only have Rp 379 million to finance the training. But we'll finance it with the next period's budget," he said, declining to mention the figure. (yan)