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)