Local archers 'lack consistency'
JAKARTA (JP): With just four weeks remaining, the national archery coaches remain doubtful about their team's chances of matching their rivals at the 13th Asian Games, let alone winning medals.
At the end of a two-day simulation at the Senayan archery range on Tuesday, Indonesia's South Korean coach Lee Jae-hyung could not hide his disappointment over his squad's off-target performance.
"Their shooting skills look good during practice, but when it come to competition, they easily lose concentration. They lack consistency," Lee said.
The Indonesian Archery Association is grooming eight archers for the Asiad in Bangkok from Dec. 6 to Dec. 20.
Lee said his archers performed flawlessly at the beginning of the simulation, but lost composure as the event went on. "They know how to keep their nerves under control, but it appears they need to drill themselves to concentrate a little bit better," he said.
Local coach Daniel Lumalesil agreed with Lee, but speculated that unfamiliarity with the newly introduced competition system accounted for his charges' lack of consistency.
"Some of them are only used to the old system. This influenced their performance," he Daniel.
The Asiad archery competition will begin with an elimination round in which each archer will shoot 36 arrows from each of 70 meters, 60m, 50m and 30m.
Qualifiers will then go into a knock-out format using 18 arrows. Only 12 arrows will be used in the final round.
The minimum score to qualify for the knock-out stage in the Asian Games will be 1,300 out of 1,440. Archers must score 160 to progress from the second round.
Dwi Purwanti in the women's division and Hendra Setijawan in the men's category were the best among Indonesia's underachievers, scoring 1,234 points and 1,219 points respectively.
Nurfitriyana scored a low 103 when she tried a second-round competition. Her performance was much better than her teammates, with Lucia coming a distant second with 95 points. Hendra led the men's division with 107 points, followed by Yulianto on 104 and Wahyu Hidayat on 103.
Psychologist Monty Setyadharma said that the archers were tense during the event because they might have been affected by their opponents.
"It's really difficult for them to get the right self-control before shooting. Lee is trying to find the athletes' individual rhythm and it takes a long time," he said.
Monty said the only way to improve the archers' concentration was to train them to relax.
Nurfitriyana, who won the 1988 Olympic silver medal with Lilies Handayani and Kusumawardhani, admitted that maintaining consistency was her main problem.
"We are using a new technique. Without full concentration, it's difficult for us to shoot consistently," she said. (yan)