Latecomers likely for Olympics 2000

JAKARTA (JP): As it kicked off of its centralized training program for the 2000 Olympics on Tuesday, the National Sports Council (KONI) said it expected 12 more athletes to qualify for the quadrennial event.

The 12 athletes are female judokas Prapti Ningsih and Aprilia Marzuki; male judoka Krisna Bayu; female tennis players Wynne Prakusya and Yayuk Basuki; and boxers La Paene Masara, Dedek Chandra, Suwardoyo, Marwan Muling, Steve Binalay, Bara Gommies and Willem Papilaya.

Prapti, Aprilia and Bayu are scheduled to compete in the Asian Championship in Japan in May, which is also the Olympics' prequalifying round. The boxers will fight in the prequalifying round in Bangkok in June.

The council's spokesman, Ahmed Solihin, rectified a remark made by Olympics training director Arie Sudewo on Monday saying that the council was likely to exclude judo and wrestling from the training programs.

"He (Arie) apologized for making a false statement. But wrestling is excluded because we haven't prioritized the sport. We won't add any new sports to our list," he told reporters after a meeting with Olympics training officials.

The Indonesian Wrestling Association (PGSI) had scheduled to send Dedy Wahyudi of East Kalimantan and Zulhaidir of South Kalimantan to compete in the freestyle pre-Olympic qualifying round in Tokyo from Feb. 25 to Feb. 27.

Until June, the council is grooming 71 athletes (39 men and 32 women) from 11 sports for the Olympics. After that period, it will reduce the number to 44 (22 men and 22 women), while it waits for the qualified judokas, tennis players and boxers to join the final preparations which end before the Olympics.

The council has been prioritizing badminton in its training programs as the sport has provided golds for Indonesia since it first featured in the 1992 Olympics. Thirty-three shuttlers are attending a training session at the Indonesian Badminton Center in Cipayung, East Jakarta.

Tennis wild cards

Ahmed said Wynne was hoping to earn a wild card from the Sydney Olympics Games Organizing Committee (SOGOC).

"We are still in the dark on her chances to get a wild card, but we will try to get one for her. She is still young and hopeful, and she is also one of our young athletes who receives a scholarship from the Olympics Solidarity organization," he said.

However, his statement upset the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) spokesman, Benny Mailili. He said the council had no right to decide which athletes had the chance to get a wild card.

"KONI cannot prioritize getting a wild card only for the women's singles. It must also fight to get a wild card for the women's doubles," he said.

Benny said requests for wild cards would be closed on March 1. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) will decide on who receives them on July 10 and announce them on July 12.

"If Wynne wants to qualify for the Olympics, she must finish in the top 110 in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings, while both Yayuk and Wynne must reach the top 200 to qualify in the doubles," he said.

"Wild cards are only a back up for both players to be able to compete at the Olympics," he added, saying that in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Yayuk, world ranked in the 30s at the time, and Romana Tedjakusuma qualified for the doubles after winning the Asian Championships.

Yayuk, who was on maternity leave last year, is ranked 16th in the women's doubles and is 55th in the women's single list, while Wynne is currently at 182.

Sixty-four players, including 16 wild card holders, will compete in the men's and women's singles events, while 32 players, including eight wild card holders, will compete in three doubles events.

Benny said ITF would oversee which regions were to qualify its players in the Olympics. Only regions which have few athletes competing in the Olympics are likely to receive wild cards.

"In Asia, we have Japanese Ai Sugiyama, Chinese Taipei Janet Lee, Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn and the Chinese players Li Fang and Yi Jing-Qiang. It might be difficult to earn one more place for the Asian region," he said.

Benny said both Yayuk and Wynne would not be able to join the council's training programs as they must compete in 10 overseas tournaments in the next five months. (ivy/yan)