KONI to exclude wrestling and judo from Olympics preparation
KONI to exclude wrestling and judo from Olympics preparation
JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI) is likely to
exclude judo and wrestling from its training program for the 2000
Olympic Games in Sydney in September.
Olympics training director Arie Sudewo said on Monday the
council had only invited about 50 athletes from nine sports --
archery, badminton, boxing, swimming and diving, tae kwon do,
tennis, track and field, weightlifting and windsurfing -- to
attend the centralized training program starting here on Tuesday.
"We are only preparing athletes from nine sports. If other
sports organizations are competing their athletes in
prequalifying rounds, they can consider their athletes as
competing in international individual events," he said.
The Indonesian Judo Association (PJSI) had planned to send
men's judoka Kresna Bayu and women's judoka Aprilia Marzuki to
compete in the Asian championships in Japan in May, which serves
as the Olympic's prequalifying round.
Bayu and Aprilia are expected to earn their tickets to the
Olympics by finishing in the top five in the championships. The
judokas failed to qualify for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
The Indonesian Wrestling Association (PGSI) is also planning
to secure Olympic berths for its athletes in the same way. It
will send Dedy Wahyudi from East Kalimantan and Zulhaidir from
South Kalimantan to compete in the freestyle pre-Olympic
qualifying round in Tokyo from Feb. 25 to Feb. 27.
Dedy will compete in the flyweight division while Zulhaidir
will wrestle in the bantamweight division. Both wrestlers must
finish in the top 10 in their divisions to go to the Olympics.
Arie said some boxers and shuttlers who were competing in the
prequalifying rounds until May could also attend the training
program.
"If the boxers and shuttlers eventually fail to qualify, they
can quit the training program immediately," said Arie, who is
also the council's vice chairman.
Arie also said the council would go ahead with a centralized
training program despite a financial shortage. He said it had not
received Rp 4.9 billion (US$658,000) from the Rp 6.9 billion the
government had pledged it to finance the training program.
"We have Rp 2 billion from the Gelora Senayan Management Board
and we have collected another Rp 500 million to start the
training. We don't want to delay the training due to a financial
shortage," he said.
Badminton
Meanwhile, the council discussed the Olympics training program
with officials from the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI)
in a meeting on Monday.
Soemarjono, a PBSI official which was appointed project
manager for the 2000 Olympics, said the council had offered to
cooperate with the association to help maintain their tradition
of Olympic gold medals.
"We are very proud to be invited to the discussion. KONI
offered the routine meeting with PBSI officials, shuttlers and
KONI officials to explain the training guidelines arranged by
KONI. Those shuttlers need a motivation boost from KONI besides
improvements in their technical skills and tactics," he said.
Team manager Hadi Nazri said the shuttlers would compete in
the Thomas and Uber Cups finals, the All-England, the Swiss Open
and the Japan Open before deciding who would be sent to Sydney.
"On May 1, there will be the selection of the shuttlers for
the Olympics. We are now focusing on the preparation for the
Cups, which will take place in May in Kuala Lumpur," he
said.(ivy)