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.