Malaysia's Allay Ong named ASC president

JAKARTA (JP): Allay Ong of Malaysia took a unanimous vote to win the chair of the Asian Shooting Federation (ASC) for the next four years in Kuta, Bali, on Friday night.

All 20 delegates participating in the election favored Ong's succeeding Indonesian Edi Sudradjat.

ASC limits a president to serving only one four-year term.

The election was the main focus of the agenda of the ASC country members now gathering in the capital for the eighth Asian Shooting Championships. Edi, who also chairs the Indonesian Shooting Association, is scheduled to open the week-long event at the Senayan shooting range today.

The competitions will start tomorrow. Most of them will be held at the Senayan shooting range, except for skeet and trap events, which will be staged at Cilodong, West Java.

Athletes from all of the confederation's 28 country members are expected to join the biennial event. Southeast Asian countries will use the Oct. 2-Oct. 9 meet as their proving ground, before entering the 18th Southeast Asian Games in Chiang Mai in December.

Ong's selection to ASC's top job will take the next shooting meet to Malaysia in 1997.

"We stand behind Malaysia since we rest big hopes on the country to continue our everlasting efforts to improve Southeast Asian standards in this continental event," Edi said after the election. "The northern region has dominated the championships too long."

Edi, who is also minister of defense, suggested the new ASC leaders think of amending some of the organization's outdated rulings.

The congress, led by ASC Secretary-General Fung Lok Nam of Singapore, also elected four vice presidents, nine executive committee members, three judge committee members and two ladies committee members.

The four new vice presidents are Kuo Ching Sing of Chinese Taipei, Kim Nam-koo of South Korea, Naboru Kikuchi of Japan and Wu Baoling of China.

Three Indonesians were included in the confederation's new leadership board, with Hariyanto Soeprapto named member of the executive committee, Lely Sampoerna appointed judge committee member and Sita Hazni joining the ladies committee.

As of yesterday, 10 had teams arrived here for the championships, which serve as the qualifying round for the shooting competition at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. (amd)