KONI wants archers to regain glory

KONI wants archers to regain glory

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Agum Gumelar, the chairman of the National Sports Council (KONI),
has called on the Indonesian Archery Association (Perpani) to
pull up its socks and produce the same world-class archers it had
at the end of the 1980s.

"I'm not an archer, but I remember Indonesia triumphing during
the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, with Lilies Handayani, Nurfitriyana
Saiman and Kusumawardani," Agum said during the opening ceremony
of the national archery championships here on Monday.

The trio finished in second place for the first silver medal
by an Indonesian archery team at the Olympics behind host South
Korea.

"I hope this championship will yield a new generation ready to
follow in the footsteps of their predecessors," said Agum, who
shot a target to mark the opening of the championships.

Agum was accompanied by Lilies and Kusumawardani and the
outgoing Perpani chairman Hayono Isman at the ceremony.

The championships, which also serve as the qualifying field
for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam, will
begin its four-day competition on Tuesday, featuring 167 male
athletes and 110 female athletes from 21 provinces.

Lilies came to the championships as the coach of the East Java
contingent.

"I wouldn't dare say anything about the target. We will be
simply competing and seeing if we have any eligible athletes for
the SEA Games," she said, adding that the team comprised 36
archers.

The championships coincide with Perpani's main agenda to elect
a new chairman to succeed Hayono Isman. I.G.K. Manila, the former
deputy chairman of KONI's development affairs commission, has so
far been tipped as the sole candidate for the post.