KONI to set ruling on PON participants

KONI to set ruling on PON participants

JAKARTA (JP): The excitement surrounding the 15th National
Games (PON) in Surabaya is less than the upcoming Euro 2000 in
the Netherlands and Belgium. However, the importance of national
athletes competing in the quadrennial event remains an
interesting discussion at home.

The National Sports Council (KONI) official in charge of
athletes' development, Mochammad Hindarto, said on Thursday that
in the future the council must issue a regulation on the age of
participating athletes in PON.

"PON is staged to recruit potential athletes to be groomed to
represent the country at a higher level of multisport events,
including the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, Asian Games (Asiad)
and Olympics," he said.

"But some provinces do not think about this purpose. They only
consider their own pride, ignoring the importance of talent
scouting and athletes' development programs."

"If all sport organizations and provinces only relied on
veteran athletes, what about the youngsters? When will we give
them a chance to showcase their skills?"

Hindarto referred to a SEA Games seminar in Kuala Lumpur
recently which highlighted the possibility of limiting the age of
participants to under 23 years of age.

"The consideration was that athletes under 23 can still
improve to perform better at Asiad and the Olympics because the
idea of staging SEA Games is to enable Southeast Asian athletes
to perform in both major events."

"This matter can be discussed in the SEA Games Federation
council meeting soon."

Hindarto was responding to a request from the West Java
chapter of the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) to
include Olympics qualifiers in PON.

"PBSI has sent a letter with the names of 19 competitors in
PON. KONI will forward the letter to the PON organizing committee
to not permit them (from competing). This is for a bigger
purpose."

West Java has registered Marlev Mainaky, Taufik Hidayat, Ricky
Subagja, Rexy Mainaky, Candra Wijaya, Flandy Limpele, Elysa
Nathanael and Lidya Djaelawidjaja to compete in PON.

PBSI has scrapped the idea, saying the shuttlers were
prioritized to retain the Olympics gold medal tradition in
badminton for Indonesia. (yan)