KONI to send Yayuk and badminton teams to Asiad

KONI to send Yayuk and badminton teams to Asiad

JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council will only definitely
send world-ranked-23 tennis player Yayuk Basuki and the men's and
women's badminton teams to the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok in
December.

The council's Asiad training director, Muhammad Hindarto, said
yesterday that Yayuk and the badminton squads had already reached
the necessary international standard and that the council had no
doubts about fielding them in the quadrennial event.

"For badminton, we have asked the Bangkok Games Organizing
Committee (BAGOC) to include 10 players in both the men's and
women's teams, based on the IBF rules, but the BAGOC has yet to
respond," he said.

BAGOC has announced that each nation can field only eight
shuttlers in each team.

Hindarto, who is also the council's athletes development
chairman, said the council would consider sending other sports to
the Asiad if they could be among the top four in Asia by the end
of August.

"If sports organizations want to stage their long-term
training programs after February, we will allow them to. The most
important thing is that their athletes must be number four in
Asia by the end of August," he said.

"Organizations whose athletes fail to reach the target will
have to bury their dreams (of going to the Asiad)," he added.

Athletes from the badminton, gymnastics, track and field,
weightlifting, tennis, cycling, judo, swimming, windsurfing,
shooting, wushu and wrestling bodies have started their training.

The boxing squad will start its training next month, the
fencers will start after their Rp 100 million (US$10,750)
equipment arrives and the volleyball body (only indoor
volleyball) will move its training from the Sentul dormitory,
Bogor, to the Senayan stadium, Central Jakarta, due to tap water
problems.

The council is providing each sports body with 50 percent of
its training costs.

Hindarto said the council would fully finance the training
from September. The council has estimated that only 155
Indonesian athletes will compete at the Asiad.

Hindarto also said that the council had yet to receive
responses from BAGOC on whether six events -- the men's Olympic
sprint and 24km women's point race (cycling), two squash
competitions, women's hammer and women's pole vault (track and
field) -- would be featured at the Games.

"We also have had no response from BAGOC about the athletes'
accommodation fee of US$60 per athlete per day. Many countries
have requested a reduction but the organizers have yet to
answer," he said.

BAGOC has also yet to respond to Indonesia's request to
exhibit pencak silat at the Games, although the council's vice
chairman, Arie Sudewo, has said that BAGOC would only feature
kick boxing and sports dance as exhibition events. (yan)