National athletes to meet Habibie for the first time
JAKARTA (JP): For the first time since taking office, President B.J. Habibie will next week send off athletes departing for an international sporting event.
No precise date has been set for Habibie's meeting with the 129-strong team who will don the national colors at the upcoming Asian Games in Bangkok. The athletes are scheduled to begin departing on Thursday.
"President Habibie will meet the athletes early in December but we haven't been told a date," the National Sports Council chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar said on Friday.
Wismoyo met State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Agung Laksnono on Friday to discuss Indonesia's final preparations for the event, which will take place from Dec. 6 to Dec. 20.
During Soeharto's era, stately receptions for national teams bound for international competitions became something of a tradition.
The last courtesy call Soeharto received from a national sports team came in May, when the national badminton team paid their respects before departing for the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup world team championships in Hong Kong. The shuttlers were still competing abroad when Soeharto fell from office and handed over power to Habibie.
Next week's date with national athletes will be only the second sports function presided over by Habibie. The first was the National Sports Day celebration in Surabaya last month.
Wismoyo said 42 coaches, three doctors, five masseurs, two physiotherapists and two psychologists would accompany the Asiad- bound athletes to Bangkok.
The team's director of training, Mochammad Hindarto, said the contingent would depart in four phases. An advance party of 125 will leave on Thursday on a Boeing 707 chartered from the Air Force.
Windsurfers and the 16-strong badminton team will leave next Saturday, shooters will fly out on Dec. 7 and a mixed squad comprising of karate, sepak takraw and rowing athletes will leave on Dec. 8. All three groups will be on commercial flights.
One female swimmer, the horse riders and judo athletes will travel to Bangkok independently from the countries in which they are currently competing and training.
Hindarto said the council had saved US$22,500 by leasing an Air Force aircraft, adding that the money would be used to send local journalists to cover the games.
He complained about the shortage of medical staff accompanying the athletes, which he said was the result of a small budgetary allocation.
"Ideally, a medical official would assist athletes from one or two sports," Hindarto said.
Surplus
The council has raised Rp 10.5 billion from the government and business community, leaving it with a comfortable Rp 3 billion surplus.
Indonesia aims to win six gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze medals in the badminton, karate, tennis, boxing and taekwondo events at this year's Asiad.
Separately, rowing team coach Dede Rohmat Nurjaya said that Indonesia's best hope in the sport, Lasmin, had surmounted his psychological problems and was now ready to go all-out for medals.
"He lacked self-confidence because of his inexperience in international events. But we managed to put all his troubles behind him after giving him extra attention during training and providing him with a psychologist," Dede said.
The 2.04-meter-tall Lasmin is expected to win a bronze in the men's heavyweight single sculls. He will also team up with Muhammad Anwar in the heavyweight double sculls.
In the lightweight event, Indonesia hopes to take medals from single sculler Jamaluddin and the double scull team of Suparto and Rahmat.
Dede said China and Japan would be his team's toughest rivals.
Indonesia has hired Dutch coach Diedrick de Boorder to boost the rowers' performance at the games. (yan)