KONI told to not to generalize in regard to field test results

JAKARTA (JP): A sports expert has called on National Sports Council (KONI) officials to avoid assuming that all athletes being prepared for the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games are in poor condition just because they did not do well in field tests.

Paulus Pasurney, who is also an expert at KONI, made the comment on Saturday following the poor field test results in physical fitness tests conducted by six sport fields -- basketball, tenpin bowling, boxing, diving, golf and karate -- preparing their athletes for the biennial Games in Brunei Darussalam.

After receiving the results, KONI officials hastily called the officials of 20 sports bodies for a series of meetings, pressing them for more serious training preparation in the next three months before the athletes compete in the Games in August.

The test results, however, were questioned by officials of Indonesian Basketball Association (Perbasi). They said national players Cokorda Raka and Eko Haryanto got poor results but had reportedly scored well in an earlier test conducted by the association.

But KONI's head of athlete development, Moch. Hindarto, said the council would proceed discussing training programs with coaches in order to intensify the preparation instead of repeating the field tests.

Paulus told reporters on Saturday that the results did not reveal the overall condition of athletes of the other 14 sports bodies.

"If all athletes score the same as the two basketball players, KONI should panic. The field test is not the last measure. We will conduct other tests after several weeks of training," he said.

He said some sports -- including boxing, track and field and basketball -- had prepared their athletes very well.

"I also supervise national basketball players from the Indonesia Muda club. During the test, the players did not warm up. That's why they failed," he said.

He said the first test, which was held last week, had been modified from its original form. The athletes from the sports that need aerobics were instructed to run for 3,000 meters, while the others only had to run for 1,600 meters.

Paulus said he would accompany Hindarto in a discussion with coaches on May 8. Paulus led Indonesian shuttlers to victory in the Thomas Cup in 1998 with only two months of preparation.

"I will brief the coaches on how to improve the physical condition of their athletes," he said.

Track and field

Separately, one more national record in the men's high jump was conquered on the last day of the two-day National Track and Field Invitational at Senayan Madya Stadium in Central Jakarta on Saturday.

Arya Yuniawan, 20, of West Nusa Tenggara scored 2.05m, one centimeter higher than the old record of 2.04m which was set by Ketut Widiana here in September 1985.

Arya joined other young stars who set new national records earlier on Friday. They include Irine Truitje Joseph of Maluku, who set a record in the women's 200m dash, Kusmiati of Central Java in the women's hammer, Alia Basalamah of Jakarta in the women's pole vault and Nunung Jayadi of Jakarta in the men's pole vault.

Irine, who ran in the 400m, managed to break the national junior record of 56.04 set by her counterpart from Jambi Lisa Thenu here in September 1996. Irine clocked 55.79 on Saturday. (ivy)